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Please click on the title or audio player link to listen to Rev. Denise Tracy’s message on “Goodness”.

 

(c) Doug Slagle, Minister to the Gathering at Northern Hills, All Rights Reserved

When Michael Brown was shot and killed by a Ferguson, Missouri police officer in the middle of a busy street, large protests and riots followed.  Many Ferguson businesses, homes and cars were looted and burned.  One more killing of a young black man, by a white police officer, was like a match to a powder keg.  Anger in that community had been building for a long time.

Writing to his son about such police killings, Ta-Nehisi Coates says on page 9 of his book Between the World and Me, “And you know now, if you did not before, that the police departments of your country have been endowed with the authority to destroy your body. It does not matter if the destruction is the result of an unfortunate overreaction. It does not matter if it originates in a misunderstanding. It does not matter if the destruction springs from a foolish policy. Sell cigarettes without the proper authority and your body can be destroyed. Resent the people trying to entrap your body and it can be destroyed. Turn into a dark stairwell and your body can be destroyed. The destroyers will rarely be held accountable. Mostly they will receive pensions. And destruction is merely the superlative form of a dominion whose prerogatives include friskings, detainings, beatings, and humiliations. All of this is common to black people. And all of this is old for black people. No one is held responsible.”

The anger in Ferguson and many other cities after a police shooting of an unarmed black man comes from many causes.  In Ferguson, that anger can be directly connected to decades of discriminatory policies – ones which Ta-Nehisi Coates has written about extensively in the Atlantic magazine where he is a senior editor and writer. 

In 1934, as Coates has described, laws were enacted by the Federal Housing Authority that allowed “redlining” of certain neighborhoods.  Homes in redlined areas are ineligible for government insured mortgages.  These policies continue today.  Ferguson is one such redlined community meaning that residents and potential buyers cannot obtain low interest and low down payment mortgages.  Property values plummet as a result.  Most homeowners in redlined neighborhoods are essentially trapped.  They cannot sell their homes because there are no buyers.

These discriminatory redlining policies led to white flight from inner cities.  Between 2000 and 2010, St. Louis and its immediate neighborhoods, of which Ferguson is one, experienced a 7% population decline.  Outlying communities, ones not redlined, experienced a 27% increase.  The result is a St. Louis, and nearby communities like Ferguson, that are deeply segregated.  Ferguson today is 67% black when only twenty years ago it was majority white.  Property values for blacks in Ferguson plummeted with white flight – all due to Federal policies that enriched white home buyers at the expense of black home owners.

The average financial wealth that a black family has in their home in St. Louis County is $75,000.  The average wealth a white St. Louis County family has stored in their home is $217,000.  Such a wealth gap exists across the U.S. and is similar to the wealth gap in Cincinnati.  The inner city here, and its immediate neighborhoods, are mostly black and poor.  Outlying communities are mostly white and well-off.  This is due to white fear of integrated neighborhoods and, most importantly, to systemic racist policies.

Adding fuel to such discrimination and resulting black anger is the fact that the Ferguson Police Department, like many inner city Police Departments around the country, is mostly white.  Ferguson is 67% African-American but, at the time of Michael Brown’s shooting, was policed by a 94% white force.

Irregardless of what Michael Brown did or did not do, whether or not he robbed a convenience store before he was shot, there is no justification for his killing.  As Coates writes in his book, whether or not an unarmed black individual has committed a relatively minor offense, that does not grant the right to Police to act as Judge, Jury and executioner.  And yet that is exactly what Police often do – as Police did to Michael Brown for walking in the middle of a street, to 12 year old Tamir Rice for playing in a park with a toy gun, to Eric Garner for selling loose cigarettes, to John Crawford at a Walmart in Dayton, Ohio for picking up a BB gun, to Walter Scott in Charlotte, North Carolina for driving with a broken car tail light, to Freddy Gray of Baltimore for running from a stop and frisk police search, to Philando Castille whose had been stopped for speeding, and here in Cincinnati, to Samuel Dubose for not displaying a license plate on the front of his car. 

These are only eight out of thousands of Police shootings of unarmed black men and women who were stopped for minor offenses.  As Coates states in his book, these were and are 21st century lynchings.

Such are the reasons for angry and bitter words in Coates’ book and for the overall anger among many African-Americans.  This in an anger I ask myself, as I ask you, to ponder, reflect upon, and try to understand.  It’s a quiet anger Coates poignantly describes the mother of Prince Jones having.  She is a successful woman – one who distinguished herself as a successful surgeon.  Mrs. Jones compares herself to Solomon Northrup form the 12 Years a Slave story.  Even when an African-American succeeds and matches the aspirations of the American dream, he or she, and their family members, are still subject to death – for no reason – at the hands of Police.   

For us as fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles, grandparents, we must put ourselves in Mrs. Jones’ shoes, and in the shoes of every other relative of a black person unjustly shot and killed.  How would we feel if it was our child?  What level of anger would we express if the killing went unpunished?  What emotions would we have toward the Police and criminal justice system?

Psychologists indicate there are three primary causes for anger.  The first cause is to experience an affront to a sense of personhood.  Everyone feels deserving of respect and dignity simply for being born.  This is not only a spiritual ideal, it is a universal human right.  When someone feels disrespected, ignored, invalidated or misunderstood – essentially diminished as a person – he or she is very likely to feel angry.

The second cause of anger is from fear.  When a person feels afraid for their personal safety, and that fear is not quickly abated, he or she is likely to feel anger at being forced to live under constant threat.

Third, someone is likely to feel anger when an unresolved memory of a childhood wound or trauma is triggered.  Most people have such wounds and when they are not properly addressed and recognized, they can be re-opened when a similar affront is experienced as an adult.

Every one of these anger causes are eloquently described by Ta-Nehisi Coates as ones felt by African-Americans.  They are routinely disrespected.  They daily live in fear that they will be harassed or harmed.  Their children are routinely exposed to traumas of discrimination.  In sum, there are multiple valid reasons why Coates and many blacks are angry.

Commentators point out that Between the World and Me is controversial for some whites because Coates is angry – and an angry black man has, throughout history, been considered frightening.  That is one reason why black men are often shot, and why racist assumptions about them continue.   Many white readers, whether they admit it or not, are subconsciously threatened by Ta-Nehisi Coates..

The facts are, however, that his anger has value.  Numerous psychologists point out that while anger is considered a negative emotion, that is an incorrect label.  Anger, experts say, helps to protect people.  It’s an evolutionary and biological response that causes a person to fight or flee.  The benefit of Coates’ anger, and his book, may well be to protect more black men from being killed.

Anger can be an effective way to communicate.  By expressing anger, one conveys feelings that something is wrong and needs to be corrected.  Indeed, Coates’ book is an effective statement of reasons why African-Americans are angry and it is thereby helpful in building white empathy.

Anger is an effective way to bring about healing.  Suppressed anger is, as we all know, destructive.  But honest, non-violent anger can restore a dysfunctional relationship.  Coates is not gentle with his view of white people, but his words have the potential to create positive change in them.

Finally, healthy anger counter-intuitively reduces violence.  It’s a release valve, if you will, of strong feelings.  Coates’ book is a stirring black voice that may prevent future racial violence.    

Between the World and Me follows the guidelines for expressing effective anger.  As such, it is valuable and profound.  Despite it being uncomfortable for many white people to read, including me, that is because examining the truth about oneself is often unpleasant. 

There is a disease of hate and bigotry eating away at our nation.  America has addressed some of the disease’s symptoms, but it has not cured the underlying illness.  The disease of racism, fed by white greed and delusions of self importance, is the direct cause of African-American anger.  But that anger is valuable if it is listened to, understood, respected and addressed by most of us who tragically, as Coates writes, believe we are white, pure and good.

(c) Doug Slagle, Minister to the Gathering at Northern Hills, All Rights Reserved

We all know of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speech at the 1963 March on Washington.  In it, he spoke the famous line, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

Implicitly, Dr. King spoke to a larger truth – one that has only recently been proven.  Racial distinctions between people are founded on external differences in appearance, and NOT on science.  There are zero genetic markers that distinguish one so-called “race” from another.  Indeed, in a 2002 landmark genetic mapping of world-wide human DNA, it was proven that every person shares 99.9% of genes.  Of the .1% different genes, none relate to supposedly racial identity features.

What this means is what people have anecdotally asserted for a long time.  Beneath our skin and external features, people are virtually the same.  We are all members of one human family, one human species.

Since that has been verifiably proven, does it mean the concept of race does not exist?  Ta-Nehisi Coates answers that question in his book Between the World and Me on page 7.  He writes, “Race is the child of racism, NOT the father.”    

In other words, race exists but only as an idea.  Race was created about five hundred years ago because people chose to determine differences between one another in order for group sought to dominate, hate and oppress other groups.  That group, people of light skin color living in Europe, defined five races based on differences in external appearance.  Hate essentially gave birth to the idea of race. 

Coates goes on to say, “Difference in hue and hair is old.  But the belief in the preeminence of hue and hair, the notion that these factors can correctly organize a society and that they signify deeper attributes, which are indelible — this is the new idea at the heart of these new people who have been brought up hopefully, tragically, deceitfully, to believe that they are white.”

Coates writes about me and most of you.  I am white only because I have accepted notions I have been taught by culture and society – that certain external features of mine, like my skin, hair or eye color, make me “white”.  Humanity has bought into the false notion of race based solely on appearance.  Genetics, however, have proven something very different.   There are no subgroups or divisions within the human species.  We are all the same.

I hope to frame today’s discussion around this fact – one which I trust you will accept as true.   I ask you to accept this fact because it is the foundation of Coates’ central argument.  Race is a way we organize society so that those who call and believe themselves to be white can dominate.  Race is a subjective, social distinction rooted in the age-old human propensity to elevate oneself, or one’s tribe, at the expense of another. 

The idea of race is a self-oriented, dog-eat-dog, me first way of thinking.  I must separate myself from others, and believe myself to be better, in order to look out just for myself, my family, and my group.  In order for me to survive and thrive, I must diminish all others.  Racism is, in truth, selfishness and greed run amok.

Ta-Nehisi Coates, like most other writers and experts, does not claim that racial classification is something any of us are responsible for creating.  It began hundreds of years ago when colonialism started.  In order to control new lands and their valuable resources, Europeans realized the people of those lands needed to be controlled.  The idea of race was created to do just that. 

Our problem today is that we were born into a culture that still uses ideas of race to define people.   From our earliest years, we are taught about the subjective differences between people.  We are also taught that our so called white group is dominant and superior.  Such false teachings are grounded not in science, but in opinion.

We are taught to perceive what anthropologists now call “race indicators” – those features of skin color and face used to separate humans into five divisions – caucasian, negro, polynesian, indigenous American, and asian.  But, as modern genetics has proven, “race indicators” are subjective.  They cannot genetically be linked to any particular group or population.     

Take a look at this slide of two persons – a woman who appears to be “black” even though she was born to two “white” parents, and a man who appears to be white even though he was born to two “black” parents.  When each of us look at these pictures, without reading facts about the persons, we immediately assume them to be part of a racial group based solely on race indicators we have been taught to associate only with a certain race.  As we see, those are often false indicators. 

This is the essential truth Coates wants to teach his son in his book.  Race is a way for white people to control others.  Bigotry towards those who appear different gave birth to the idea of race.  As Coates writes, racism fathered the idea of race.  Nature did not create different races.  We did.

For us as people called ‘white’, we are not the victims of racial identity.  We are the beneficiaries.  Because our culture defines us as ‘white’, we have access to better neighborhoods, better schools, better paying jobs, and a life free from injustice.  We are shielded from unjust suspicion or incarceration by the criminal justice system.  We are shielded from unequal treatment anywhere we go.  We have access to better health care and we live longer as a result.  We are free from fear that we will be bodily harmed because of our defined race.

Most whites – including myself – are therefore blind to racism because we do not experience it.  This obstacle to our awakening is, as I said last Sunday, because we are mostly empathy deficient.  Since we don’t experience racial discrimination, we mostlly do not think about it or understand it.

I said last week that I offer no solutions to racism.  But I will offer what Coates implies in Between the World and Me what those who believe they are white could do…

First, so called whites should, as many blacks say, be “woke”.  We must awaken to the fact that the idea of race is a social and cultural construct – not a genetic one.

Second, whites should admit the reasons why separation into different races began hundreds of years ago – and why it continues.  Race as an idea was created, and it continues, so that whites can dominate and prosper while other groups – blacks, Asians, indigenous peoples – are marginalized.

Third, and most important, whites should empathize and identify with black suffering, anger and frustration.  We must purposefully learn to feel what they feel, and why they feel it.

Fourth, we as whites should work to end all forms of brutality and discrimination inflicted on others based on the false idea of race.  We must end the fear for their bodies, as Coates says, that we cause.  

Fifth, white people should accept that, as a part of the dominant group, we enjoy unequal privileges.  As a popular black phrase goes, whites must “check their privilege.”  That means we should identify, acknowledge and then end the unequal privileges we receive.

If you have read even part of Between the World and Me, you know that Ta-Nehisi Coates has little hope these steps will be taken.  He ultimately has no hope in ending racism because much of history has shown humanity is a nasty, selfish and brutish species.  People would rather compete against, demean and harm one another – all in the false belief that survival of the strongest is the only way to live.

While Coates’ pessimism is understandable, and held by many others, it is a viewpoint that reduces all people to their lowest behaviors.  Any sense of spirituality, any sense that each person lives for a higher purpose beyond their own selfish needs, tells us that people can learn from, understand, listen to, and cooperate with one another.  Instead of life being a win – lose proposition, life can become a win – win for everyone.

Every spiritual prophet of history understood this.  As a species, humans aspire to noble and universal ideals  – that everyone deserves a life of well-being, equality, freedom and, above all, love.  These are the things that unite and motivate us all.  For me, I pray for myself and all who believe they are white, that we commit to change our minds, hearts and souls.  Those who think they are white must endeavor to build a world with equal peace and joy for the entire human family.    

(c) Doug Slagle, Minister to the Gathering at Northern Hills, All Rights Reserved

This past November 17th at the ReThinking Racism discussion seminar held. in this sanctuary, the session had been running for barely ten minutes before a lone African-American woman stood and asked, in a voice tinged with frustration and a bit of anger, “Why are we still talking about racism fifty years after it was supposed to be settled?”

That question quieted this room.  Over ninety people attended that evening.  Almost a fourth of them were people of color.   Her question hung in the air until it was time to determine topics for each of nine discussion groups.  Her question was chosen as the topic for one group and it was one of the largest attended – almost twenty people including me.  This group grappled with the question and varying answers to it were suggested.  Five African-American women and one Latina woman offered ideas.  They were the most powerful because their comments came from personal experience. 

But despite well thought suggestions, it was clear nobody could definitively answer the question.  Why, after fifty years, after passing of landmark Civil Rights laws, after the election of a black President twice, why are we still witnessing unarmed African-American men, women and children killed by police for no reason?  Why are we still fighting laws designed to curb voting rights in Ohio and other states?  Why are schools still deeply segregated with schools in minority communities still underfunded and deficient in performance?

I left that evening full of appreciation for the opportunity to listen.  I especially was thankful to hear the thoughts of black men and women.  Racism is a subject I too often hesitate to talk about with people of color.

I wanted those discussions to continue but I mostly wanted them to continue in a way that caused me and other whites to grapple with our role in racism through enjoyment of white privilege.  I wanted this congregation to continue its year long effort to learn, understand and think through the subject.  I wanted all of that, and I wanted to hear an authoritative black voice speak above and beyond the voice of whites.  I believe whites must do far more listening than speaking on this subject.

It’s then I thought this congregation could jointly read a book by a black author as a way to listen to the thoughts of someone personally victimized by racism.  I came across Between the World and Me and I was both moved and challenged by it. 

Ta-Nehisi Coates, for me, is a writer of uncommon insight who uses beautiful phrasing to describe terrible things.  His anger, his bleak assessment of our nation, his refusal to champion small glimmers of hope – these are all aspects of the book that intrigue me.  The fact that the book is in the form of a letter to his son is also poignant. 

This is a book that is quite controversial in some circles, but one that is widely praised in the black community as profound and authentic. The book speaks the contemporary African-American voice and might fairly represent its communal thoughts and emotions.

The book was titled by using one line from a famous poem by Richard Wright – writing eighty years ago.  A portion of the poem is reprinted in the book but I will read a longer portion of it now.

And one morning while in the woods I stumbled

    suddenly upon the thing,

Stumbled upon it in a grassy clearing guarded by scaly

    oaks and elms

And the sooty details of the scene rose, thrusting

    themselves between the world and me….

There was a design of white bones slumbering forgottenly

    upon a cushion of ashes.

There was a charred stump of a sapling pointing a blunt

    finger accusingly at the sky.

There were torn tree limbs, tiny veins of burnt leaves, and

    a scorched coil of greasy hemp;

A vacant shoe, an empty tie, a ripped shirt, a lonely hat,

    and a pair of trousers stiff with black blood.

And upon the trampled grass were buttons, dead matches,

    butt-ends of cigars and cigarettes, peanut shells, a

    drained gin-flask, and a whore’s lipstick;

Scattered traces of tar, restless arrays of feathers, and the

    lingering smell of gasoline.

And through the morning air the sun poured yellow

    surprise into the eye sockets of the stony skull….

And while I stood my mind was frozen within cold pity

    for the life that was gone.

The ground gripped my feet and my heart was circled by

    icy walls of fear–

The sun died in the sky; a night wind muttered in the

    grass and fumbled the leaves in the trees; the woods

    poured forth the hungry yelping of hounds; the

    darkness screamed with thirsty voices; and the witnesses rose and lived:

The dry bones stirred, rattled, lifted, melting themselves

    into my bones.

The grey ashes formed flesh firm and black, entering into

    my flesh.

Wright’s poem continues for several more verses but the “punch to the stomach” lines, for me, are ones I’ve just read.  They lead me to the most important reason why I chose to use Coates’ book as the basis for our congregation discussions.  The book Between the World and Me, like this poem, asks readers to hear, understand and feel the emotions of African-Americans.

I often assert that the single most important spiritual quality a person can have is to be able to empathize.  Empathy is a human attitude in short supply today.  Mean spirited words are tossed across political, religious and racial divides without anyone taking the time to just listen, process and honestly place oneself in the proverbial shoes of another.

If every person empathized with the feelings of others, I believe our world would be much better.  Empathy involves active listening to the other – a conscious and studied effort to physically and mentally open oneself to hear the words of another and then work to understand and relate to them.  Understanding means to hear underlying emotions that shape the words.  Empathy is, as President Bill Clinton often said, to literally feel the pain the other talks about.

Reading about a lynching scene described in poetic detail grabs at the gut and forces the reader to stand in the same place, to see the grisly details, smell the burnt flesh, and imagine the horrific suffering the victim felt.

Reading Between the World and Me caused me to similarly hear the sadness, anger and pain of African-Americans.  It led me to put myself in their shoes – to imagine myself living constantly on guard for my safety or that of my children.  The book caused me to feel the frustration of Coates, and the woman In here with her question, why is white oppression and violence against blacks still a fact?

The ugliness of nasty racism is still prevalent.  We hear it everyday and we heard it all too recently when a New York politician spoke words about our President and his wife that could have been said two hundred years ago. 

But just as common as is overt racism, is the continued prevalence of white innocence and white privilege.  We are cocooned in homes, workplaces and communities so very separate from the black experience.  Such insulation is powerfully depicted in the painting on the covers of your programs.  As white people, we are oblivious and indifferent to black pain primarily because we fail to hear, understand and feel it.

I offer – and will offer – no solutions to racism in here.  As I said earlier, solutions are not up to me to offer – nor are they up to any white person.

I hope we will hear and accept Coates’ emotions and not dissect his words for their intellectual argument.  I hope we can find ourselves experiencing, on an empathy level, the same anger, sadness, lack of hope and frustration that he feels – as do many other African-Americans.

If there is any purpose to our discussion today, and in the next two weeks, I hope it is this:  that we grow as a community and as spiritually attuned people, if we feel, for a short time, as if we are victims of racism.  I believe we can thereby understand, in very small ways, the injury blacks feel today, and have felt for hundreds of years.

    

(c) Doug Slagle, Minister to the Gathering at Northern Hills, All Rights Reserved

A well known contemporary writer, Larry Wilde, once said, “Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree.  In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall.”  And Erma Bombeck, a well-known humorist in her own right, once said, “There is nothing sadder in this world than to awake on Christmas morning and not be a child.”

Christmas and Hanukah, of all the year’s days, are ones most anticipated by children – and perhaps most dreaded by adults!  But as we have considered a very Dickens holiday over the past two Sundays, I hope this evening we will consider Dickens belief that the two holidays are best seen through the eyes of youth – and how they are often much wiser than adults.  

As we all agree, Christmas and Hanukah ought to be simple occasions when relationships, family, and service to others are valued more than gifts and lavish parties.  This is a season when we want to find meaning by remembering and practicing our values.   

Charles Dickens understood that.  In most of his novels, it is the adults who need to transform their thinking.  It’s the children in his stories who suffer the most, but who still retain the kind of wisdom, love and wonder that gives our world hope.

Such Dickens ideals echo those of Jesus who implored adults to let kids be true to their good instincts.  “Don’t hold them back,” he said.  “The realm of goodness belongs to children!”  That timeless truth tells us that the attitudes of children are ones to copy.   Indeed, I believe the holidays are best celebrated in the company of young people – or in the company of adults who act and think like children.  The spirit of Christmas and Hanukkah are found when we reclaim our inner child.

I remember the second Christmas of my daughter Sara – 30 years ago!  The must-have gift for kids that year was an animated wonder toy called Teddy Ruxpin.  This stuffed bear talked, sang, moved its mouth and blinked its eyes – all in some fantastic and never before seen way.  Sara’s mother and I thought that she was old enough for it.  So, expensive as it was for a young family, we bought it and made it Sara’s featured gift. 

After we helped her unwrap and open the box, and after I figured out how to insert the batteries and turn it on, Sara stared at that 1980’s technological marvel.  It perplexed her for a minute but, instead of then delighting in it, she quickly turned her attention to the brightly colored wrapping paper and a large red bow we had torn off the box.  She playfully tossed the paper around, wrapped it around her head, twirled the ribbon, crawled inside the large box and completely ignored the singing bear. 

Those simple things delighted her far more than the expensive toy.  Pulling the box over her head and playing peek-a-boo was much more fun.  Money, technology and costly things had not yet corrupted her – as they do almost everyone when they reach a certain age.  Whenever that happens, we lose something beautiful and pure – we lose the child in us that can make the holidays so delightful.

Along with memories of my daughter Sara on Christmas are ones I have of my maternal grandfather.  When I was young, I recall Christmases with him when, after a few glasses of holiday spirits, he became very, very silly.  He decorated his bald head with multiple bows, put on ugly clothing other people had received for Christmas, dangled tree ornaments from his ears, danced around the room and mugged for me and my siblings.  We thought he was crazy but absolutely hilarious.  My grandmother, who was much more serious, frowned at his antics, but that caused him to be even more silly.  He stuck his tongue out at her and continued on.  At Christmas, this older man became a child again – and he made the day alive and full of laughter.

Charles Dickens does much the same with some of the characters in his novels.  We easily remember the kids in his books – the innocent David Copperfield and Oliver Twist, the conniving and prank loving Artful Dodger, or the pure Tiny Tim who thinks more about the happiness of others.  Dickens identified with children who suffered because of his own traumatic experiences as a child.  He championed their interests and he was strategic in using them to prick the consciences of his readers. 

Victorian England, perhaps like contemporary America, distrusted the poor and questioned their work ethic and morality.  Prevailing thinking believed that people are personally at fault for being poor or in debt.  While Dickens knew such thinking is false, he also knew that nobody can question the work ethic or motivations of children.  They are innocents who have nothing to do with their suffering.  So he featured children as some of his most memorable characters – those who are poor and suffer but who offer profound wisdom.

It is Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol who captures our hearts and sympathies.  Despite his infirmity, he exclaims in the novel that he hopes people at church will notice his physical challenges, especially at Christmas.  It will remind them, he says, of the one whose holiday we celebrate – the man who advocated for the blind, the challenged and the lame. 

Later, it’s Tim who prays for Scrooge and it’s Tim who is given the most repeated line from the novel – “God bless us everyone!”  Tim does not feel the shame of his condition.  Like most kids, he sees himself and others with innocence.  Everyone is equal in his eyes.  He feels blessed – not cursed.   As Tiny Tim says, “It is good to be a child sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, whose mighty founder was a child himself!”

We do young people no favor, however, by over-idealizing them and making them more angelic than they are.  I know.  I survived raising two teenage girls and I well remember what I would often tell them when they were acting every bit a hormonal teenager – “I will always love you, but right now I don’t like you very much!”   

But the attitudes of youth, their innocent ways, their idealism, energy and hope for the future are qualities that enable their wide eyed wonder and a belief that the world can be made much, much better.  As we think about it, it was the youth of the 1960’s who ended a war, brought down a deceitful President and who now, as part of the millennial generation, have championed marriage equality, justice for African-Americans and a deep concern for the earth and our environment.  Children and youth are also naturally less inhibited about loving, playing and laughing with anyone.  They have no adult filters that can judge others based on looks, gender, income, race or whom they love.  At some point in life, however, we learn too much, we become a bit too cynical and much too serious.  We lose the wisdom we once had as a kid – a sense of trust and a happy-go-lucky joy.

It was Jesus who said that faith like a child is what will heal the world.  After a troubling past year, and perhaps troubling years ahead, we need to remember his words.   Most children are color blind.  Many have little use for money or expensive things.  The world, for them, is like a playground on which everyone ought to treat each other as friends.   Faith like a child is an attitude that trusts in the implicit goodness of others, that is deeply sad when others hurt, that is humble and simple.  It is the kind of pure faith that I remember in my very young daughters when they would toddle along beside me and reach up their little hands to hold mine and follow me anywhere.  Their sweet trust was so complete in their daddy.

That innocence in children can be dangerous, but as adults we can emphasize danger and demean youthful naiveté too much.  Real spirituality involves just the kind of trust and unconditional love that children possess.  We should never try to suppress that in them.  Children have no sense of self-importance and simply enjoy the beauty, fun and play found in every person.

Charles Dickens believed this.  How can we not see, he implicitly asks in his novels, in the face of any child – black, brown, dirty, crying, poor  or sick – great wisdom that adults should heed? 

I love this place when kids and teens are running around, playing and laughing – the more hectic, the better!  For me, the greatest value we have here – one that we state each week in our unison affirmation – is that we are committed to the future of children – ours and all others.  Such a future is one where the idea of one human family might come to pass because of the idealism of our youth.  It’s they whom I trust will promote a world where differences in race, religion, nationality or status are no more.  Where hate, bigotry and violence cease to exist.  Adults might say that is a utopian dream which will never happen.  But if we remember the wisdom of children, that anything is possible for those who see every Christmas tree as thirty feet tall, who trust and like everyone………..then such a future might happen.

When we go home tonight, when we awake in the morning – let’s resolve to let our inner child out.  Let’s see the world in new and fresh ways.  Let’s be playful, joyous, trusting and full of hope.  Let’s see in every face we encounter, as Dickens did, the image of the divine – someone to be loved and treated with dignity.  Let’s grab the tinsel, wrapping paper, boxes, ribbons and holiday spirits – and throw a party!  Let’s abandon our serious selves and reach out to family, friends and all others with a trusting hand –  “Here I am,” we might say, “It’s a holiday and I want to play!”

And I wish you all a peaceful Hanukah and a joyful Christmas!

(c) Doug Slagle, Minister to the Gathering at Northern Hills, All Rights Reserved

My message series theme this month is one I’ve entitled  “A Very Dickens Holiday”.  Last Sunday, today and then again next Saturday at our Candlelight Christmas Eve / Hanukah service, I examine relevant holiday ideas from Charles Dickens’ novels – and particularly his most famous one, A Christmas Carol.

As you know, most of that novel describes its main character’s night-long journey, led by three ghosts, to view his past, present and future.  Near the end of the novel, this character Scrooge encounters the ghost of the future which Dickens describes this way:

The Phantom slowly, gravely, silently approached.  When it came near him, Scrooge bent down upon his knee; for in the very air through which this Spirit moved it seemed to scatter gloom and mystery.  It was shrouded in a deep black garment, which concealed its head, its face, its form, and left nothing of it visible save one outstretched hand…It thrilled Scrooge with a vague uncertain horror, to know that behind the mask there were eyes staring at him.

And thus began Scrooge’s final journey into his bitter and hateful soul.  This ghost first shows him a vision of three businessmen who make light of the death of a colleague – someone few people liked.  They joke that it will be a very cheap funeral since nobody will attend.

Scrooge is then taken to an apartment where he watches as three people wantonly pillage the material items of a deceased man they knew.

Next the ghost shows Scrooge a shrouded corpse and tries to reveal the body.  Scrooge begs the ghost to stop.  He asks the ghost to instead show him someone who feels any emotion over the man’s death.  He’s then shown a husband and wife as they happily talk about a man’s death.  They owed the man money and now that debt will be forgotten.

Scrooge begs to be shown some tenderness associated with death and the ghost brings him to the home of Bob Cratchit and his family as they tearfully lament the passing of their physically challenged son Tiny Tim.  Scrooge is deeply moved but the ghost is not finished.  The ghost, as its last act, takes Scrooge to a rundown graveyard and moves to a distant corner where a moldy gravestone sits with the name Ebenezer Scrooge upon it.

Scrooge realizes he is the one the previous people spoke.  He begs the ghost to erase his name from the tombstone and says to it,  “Good Spirit…Assure me that I yet may change these shadows you have shown me, by an altered life!”

The very next moment Scrooge is back in his bedroom.  He hurries across his dark room to throw open the window shutters and exults as streams of sunlight pour upon him.  Scrooge celebrates his change of heart.

I briefly described in my message last Sunday the unhappy childhood of Charles Dickens.  He was born to a large family and his father was a low paid clerk.  Young Charles attended a school for poor youth until the age of twelve when he was forced to quit and work ten hours a day in a factory to help pay family debt.  His father was irresponsible with money.  He and his family were thus locked up in debtor’s prison. 

When Dickens’ father was released after a year, his mother demanded Charles remain at work and continue supporting the family.  Her insensitivity wounded Dickens but he was eventually able to persuade his parents to allow him to attend a charity boarding school.  That experience, however, was equally unhappy.  At school, Charles was beaten and ignored.  He felt the sting of being unloved and unwanted by his parents.  At the age of fifteen, he went to work as an office boy where he advanced, became a journalist, and began a career as a writer. 

The pain of feeling abused and unloved as a child had a strong impact on Dickens.  At the age of 27 he published one of his most successful novels – Oliver Twist – about the life of an orphan forced to live on the streets of London slums.  Dickens focused many of his novels on the challenges of poverty and particularly on how it affects children.  Many of his characters, like Oliver Twist, David Copperfield or young Pip in the book Great Expectations, overcome childhood poverty through hard work and the kindness of strangers.  The sad trajectory of their lives is changed – by their own doing – and by the charity of others.

Such stories of change interested Dickens.  He not only condemned society for its cruel treatment of children, he championed persons like himself who transform themselves into happy and caring citizens.  As he once said about his childhood, “I know I do not exaggerate, unconsciously and unintentionally, the scantiness of my resources and the difficulty of my life… I know that… I might easily have been, for any care that was taken of me, a little robber or a vagabond.”

As I discussed last week, Dickens became a Unitarian.  He joined London’s Essex Chapel after touring the U.S. – where he was as popular as in England.  While in the US, he heard sermons by William Ellery Channing, the founder of Unitarianism.  He was intrigued with the idea that God and Christ are not agents of change in the world.  To rely on faith in unproven miracles, he believed, is a misplaced hope.  He was instead drawn to Unitarian beliefs that people must be the world’s real change agents.

Dickens admired the teachings of Jesus and they formed his spirituality.  The only worthy religion for him is one that teaches its members to always do good for others.  In order to accomplish that, one must first change oneself.  The essence of Jesus’ teaching, and that of Unitarianism, is that people undertake journeys of personal change in order to then transform the world.  Dickens implied that such transformation in himself – from an unhappy youth to contented adulthood – is what helped him succeed.

We read in A Christmas Carol the same kind of transformation in Ebenezer Scrooge.  Much like Dickens, Scrooge is described as being neglected as a boy.  During a visit to his past, we see a young Scrooge who is disliked by other children.  That continues at his boarding school where, one Christmas, he is all alone.  The other boys had gone home, or had been invited to join others.  The adult Scrooge, seeing this vision of his past, weeps for a lonely and sad child – himself.

Next we see Scrooge as a young man who is working for a benevolent boss named Fezziwig.  Scrooge thrives in this employment and finds, for the first time, fulfillment.  That is enlarged when he meets Belle, a woman with whom he falls in love.  Belle, however, eventually rejects Scrooge and chooses to marry another man.  Why?  She tells Scrooge that he had replaced his affections for her with love for work and money.

A somewhat similar story of unhappy youth is found with Jesus.  Dickens appreciated that fact and was inspired by it.  Jesus was born poor.  It’s likely he was conceived out of wedlock – a scandalous rumor that persisted after his death.  Many scholars believe the Christmas story of Jesus’ virgin birth was invented by later writers who not only wanted to make him the son of God, but who also wanted to erase the stigma of his illegitimacy.  Scholars surmise that his mother Mary, as a young 15 year old, was raped and impregnated by a Roman soldier – a common occurrence of the time.

Jesus was an ordinary laborer as an adult.  He lived in the backward village of Nazareth – a fact his opponents used to scorn him.  Jesus was so poor that he did not own a home and lived entirely off the support of his followers.

The circumstances of his life and the compassion of his teachings affected Charles Dickens just as they have affected millions of others.  Jesus the man, NOT the religious and mythological Christ figure, is one of history’s most influential persons.

To be good, Dickens realized, is not to piously pray, attend church and obey obscure religious rules.  To be good is to be peaceful, humble and compassionate.  To be good is to treat and love other people as much as one wants to be treated and loved oneself  – by following the so-called Golden Rule.

But in order to achieve such goodness, Dickens believed individuals and society must change their self focused impulses.  That does not mean one rejects having basic needs met – or that one should deny pleasure.  Indeed, Jesus is described as a man who loved wine, parties and the company of unmarried women.   Likewise Charles Dickens, as an adult Unitarian, was known by the nickname “Master of Revelry.”  His novels, including A Christmas Carol, are full of people enjoying friends, food, drink and love.

The key to goodness is to make obtaining such joys a secondary focus.  My world must not primarily revolve around my desires and a search for their indulgence.  Instead, my life must find its meaning and purpose through service, compassion and making a difference for good.  To do that, I must change.

This process is one we undertake until the day we die.  We must continually grow, self-actualize, learn and be better.  And there is only one purpose for such ongoing transformation.  By understanding that life is an opportunity, and a responsibility, to make things better for others, we thereby build legacies of good on top of past legacies of good.

When we find this true purpose for living, as Scrooge does during his Christmas Eve visions, we see all the ways we fall short and can yet grow.  We perceive the emotional scars we carry from our past, how they hold us back, and then work to heal them.  Anger and bitterness shut off my capacity to love.  A lack of self esteem prevents my talents from being useful to the world.  Arrogance and narcissism leads me to serve only my needs.  A lack of empathy for those who suffer leads me to indifference and cruelty.    

I often quote Mahatma Gandhi that WE must BE the change we want to SEE.  Sadly, the reverse of that is also true.  Failing to heal our inner wounds causes us to be a source of the world’s pain.   We think our personal failures don’t have an impact, but our individual anger, arrogance, inability to forgive, love or show empathy all add to the violence and oppression we see.  It is a sobering truth, but my flaws can be destructive to others far beyond myself. 

What Dickens keenly understood is that our world is only as good, or as bad, as what is in each of our hearts.  When we change ourselves for the better, we change the world.  When we save just one life, we save ALL humanity.

After waking from his nighttime ghostly visits, Scrooge is a different man.  He immediately orders a Christmas goose be sent to the Cratchit home.  Then he attends Christmas dinner at his nephew Fred’s home where he surprises everyone with festive humor and generous gifts.  Finally, he brings gifts to those he’s hurt and ignored.  He triples the salary of Bob Cratchit and resolves to become a second father to Tiny Tim – thus insuring he will get the healthcare he needs.  At the novel’s conclusion, Scrooge is said to be faithful to his word.  He transforms his miserable life into one of happiness – not because he hoards more wealth, but because he gives it, and himself, away. The central message of A Christmas Carol becomes clear: it is never too late to change for the better.

In three weeks, we’ll begin our congregation wide reading and discussion of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ book Between the World and Me.  I hope you will get the book and read it.  In his bleak assessment of our nation, Coates sees little hope for ending racism unless those of us who think we are white fundamentally change our thinking.  Implicitly, he speaks of the kind of change needed in Whites that Scrooge underwent.  Those who think they are white, he says, must confront our nation’s brutal past to see that the very idea of different races is a construct built to oppress one group, while allowing another to prosper. 

       The inner journey that Scrooge takes is one I hope we will take by reading the Coates’ book.  The Holidays call me, just as I hope they call you, to build peace in our nation.  If we ever hope to achieve that, we must extinguish racism along with all other forms of intolerance and hate.  The power of change, if we listen to it, will enable us to throw open the shutters to our hearts and souls.  Every time we do that, every time we extend ourselves beyond what we’ve mistakenly done in the past, we improve life for everyone. 

       The prompts of holiday cheer DO lead to softer hearts, but Dickens reminds us that change, in order to be true, must permanently turn a person 180 degrees from where they once were.  As enlightened as I pray I might be, I am nowhere near complete.  On matters of race, a mind at peace, or a fully generous attitude – these are areas in which I must grow.  I trust each of you have ways to change as well.  For us, let’s remember holiday values of peace, goodwill to all, and giving to others – .and use them to examine our own hearts and minds.  Where lurks the inner Scrooge in us?  Like him, may we become, may we change to be, the kind of people we were all meant to be.

       To you and yours, I wish you peace and joy for the holidays, and new year ahead.

                       

   

(c) Doug Slagle, Minister to the Gathering at Northern Hills, All Rights Reserved

Many of you know that the famous author Charles Dickens was a Unitarian.   Like many people, he was conflicted about his faith and even once quit his Unitarian church and returned to Christianity.  He eventually came back and led the remainder of his life a strong supporter of Unitarianism.

One of the primary spiritual issues that concerned Dickens was the problem of suffering in the world.  Not only did he wrestle with the question of why a loving God – or universal force for good – allows pain, poverty and disease, he was equally interested with the role of religion and society in doing something about them.  Ultimately, his concern was whether good triumphs over evil.  Will some kind of blessing, or silver lining, or good overcome the effects of suffering?  For the purposes of my message title today, will light conquer darkness?

Philosophers, writers and ministers have thought about this question for centuries.  Dickens was no different.  But he had a particular interest in the subject because of traumas he experienced as a boy.  At the age of twelve, Dickens was forced to work for ten hours a day, six days a week, in a shoe polish factory.  He was sentenced to that work in order to help pay back family debt.  His father owed the equivalent of $4000, he could not pay it back, and so off to debtor’s prison he and his family went – with Charles sentenced to work in a factory.

Not only was this deeply humiliating to a young boy, it was a harrowing experience working in a dangerous factory full of adults.  Even worse, his family was sent to the infamous London debtor’s prison Marshalsea – an overcrowded, filthy and violent prison.  For his entire life, Dickens had a deep fear of poverty and an equally deep concern for the poor and marginalized.  In his mind, poverty and ill treatment of the poor were the worst forms of suffering.  Not only were the poor literally locked away – many debtors of his time were imprisoned for twenty years or more – they were also locked into an economic system that perpetuated poverty through lack of opportunity, no access to education, and poor healthcare.

Dickens filled his novels with characters trapped in poverty.  Several of his books included characters locked away in debtors prisons.  Luckily for him and his family, his father received a small inheritance after a year in prison and they were freed.  But Dickens was not freed from his nightmares, nor from a visceral anger at religion and society that were indifferent to the horrors of being poor, particularly those faced by young children.

Implicit in all of his novels was the spiritual question I posed earlier.  What is to be done about such suffering?  How can any God or religion allow poverty?  Is there any hope in a world where literally everyone suffers at some point in life?  Is there any hope in a world where millions cruelly suffer in poverty because others simply do not care, or turn a blind eye to it?  Will good defeat evil?

Dickens found an answer in Unitarianism.  Neither God nor his mythic martyr son – Christ – are the answers.  We are.   

My message theme this month is “A Very Dickens Holiday”.  I want to examine Charles Dickens’ perspective on three themes from many of his novels and, in particular, from his most famous one, A Christmas Carol.  Today, I consider the topic, does light conquer darkness?  Next Sunday, I’ll look at the power of change.  And, at our Candlelight Christmas Eve service, I’ll discuss the timeless wisdom of children.

For Dickens, the teachings of Jesus are one answer to darkness and suffering in the world.  Indeed, for Dickens, honoring the ethics of Jesus solved the problem of celebrating Christmas for those who do not believe in Biblical miracles – Jesus’ virgin birth or his return from the dead.  Christmas need not be a holiday celebrating his supernatural birth, but rather a joyous time to remember his teachings and the way he led his life.   

In a book Dickens wrote for his children entitled The Life of Our Lord, he explained his spirituality.  Religion, for him, is about always doing good for others.  In this way, Jesus was a model human to emulate.  In order to address the darkness of suffering, Dickens said we should, like Jesus, accept and befriend all outcasts – the prostitute, homeless, criminal, immigrants or others.  We must care for the poor and love the unloved.

Dickens said that he trusted no church, temple or mosque that does not purposefully serve such people.  In his mind, the only true religion is one that inspires its members to improve the world.  He called his spiritual beliefs a “Carol Philosophy” – one named after his novel A Christmas Carol. 

Interestingly, Dickens wrote that novel only a few months after he became a Unitarian.  Whether or not his new church influenced the story, it’s clear that Unitarian ideals are found in the book.  God and religious themes are not in A Christmas Carol.  It’s a tale of good versus evil, but the battle Dickens describes is one fought on a human level, not a spiritual one.  Suffering is solved by by flawed people who wrestle with their attitudes of selfishness, arrogance and anger.  Change in the human heart is not prompted by belief in a mythic Savior, but in realizing that darkness and suffering are real – and that the only solution to them is the light of charity.

It might be said that Dickens ironically saw in Unitarianism exactly what Jesus taught and practiced.  Ultimately, Dickens chose to be a Unitarian because he saw it as the only form of spirituality that matched his own.  He did his best to practice his beliefs – financially supporting a home for prostitutes and homeless women, and later founding a school for street children called Ragged House – named for the rags such kids once wore.

Unitarians proudly proclaim they celebrate no creeds, only deeds.  And that’s a  theme in A Christmas Carol.  It’s not religion that heals the world, it’s kindness and love.  It’s people who embrace the light of compassion.  As Dickens once said, “No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it to anyone else.”  It may sound trite, but human kindness is the light that illuminates the world. 

Dickens used the character Scrooge to highlight this value.  Scrooge wallows not only in his own misery, he points it out in the lives of others – telling Bob Cratchit, his abused employee, that he and his family are poor, have no prospect of success and are raising a physically challenged son who will soon die.  Why, Scrooge asks, should the Cratchits be merry during the holidays?

Dark imagery in A Christmas Carol illustrates Dickens’ view of suffering.  Scrooge’s offices are gloomy and cold.  “Darkness is cheap”, Dickens wrote, “and Scrooge liked it”.  During Christmas Eve night, Scrooge is visited by three ghosts – symbols of death.  They force him to confront the suffering of his past, present and future.  Scrooge must relive his lonely and unloved youth by revisiting the dark hallways of his boarding school.  He must visit the present day, dimly lit home in which Bob Cratchilt’s family dwells in poverty.  He witnesses their meagre holiday dinner and hears the dire prognosis for young Tiny Tim – that he will not live to see another Christmas.

Later, a ghost takes Scrooge to a dark and crude shack, inhabited by a poor coal mining family.  He later confronts a dim vision of the future – one where Tiny Tim has died, Bob Cratchit cries out with grief, and where thieves scavenge in darkness through a dead Scrooge’ s belongings.  The final image Scrooge must face, in the dead of night, is his own long forgotten grave.

For Dickens, this is not a world ruined by supernatural evil.  Nor is it one forsaken by some god.  Instead, it’s a world of pain caused by neglect, indifference, and ignorance.  It’s a world created by us.

Despite describing this very dark world, Dickens intended to write an uplifting story – one that acknowledges suffering but which contrasts it, and conquers it, with hope and light.

Indeed, the light images in A Christmas Carol are uplifting ones that influence not only Scrooge, but readers as well.  The light of caring is found in the Cratchit home – one warmed not by a small fireplace, but by family love.  It’s found at a bright holiday party where Scrooge’s nephew Fred counsels his family not to despise his uncle, but to have sympathy for him and his lonely, bitter life. 

A light of goodness, in an otherwise dark world, is seen when Scrooge visits the home of the woman Belle, whom he loved as a young man, but who chose to marry another.  While Scrooge remarks on her choice of an obviously less successful man than he, the reader nevertheless sees her contented life in a small but bright home.   Who is richer – Belle and her husband living simply, happily and in love, or Scrooge with his stingy hoard of lonely wealth?

Holiday light is found in the coal miner’s shack Scrooge visits.  Despite the family’s obvious poverty, their shack is lit by a single candle while they celebrate the holidays.  The ghost of Christmas present is not a foreboding presence, but rather one who models the right holiday spirit.  Full of mirth, he wears a crown of holly and carries a flaming torch from which drips kindness and love on all who fall within its light.  Even the physically disabled Tiny Tim is a source of light.  After wishing a blessing on his family as they sit around their fireplace, he remembers to ask a blessing for Scrooge.

On Christmas morning when Scrooge awakens in his dark apartment after a night spent seeing so much misery, he flings open the window shutters and exults as streams of sunlight pour through.  Somehow, some way, Scrooge transformed himself not just by confronting suffering, but by heeding the call to find joy through loving and serving others.  Light wins its victory!

For us, as we ponder the suffering we see in the world – or in our lives- we must resolve to be a solution.  For Unitarians, Humanists, Pagans and others who do not believe in a supernatural god or goddess, the holidays and Christmas can be celebrated because of their implicit values.  Instead of thinking the holidays have no real meaning, Dickens would encourage us to joyfully embrace them.  This is a season of light and joy precisely because it initiates in people a desire to give, serve and love.  That’s a feeling to hold and cherish now – and throughout the new year.

The unique perspective Dickens had about the holidays, and that Unitarians have as well, is that the ONLY thing to spiritually honor is the prompt of human conscience to do good and to be a loving light in the lives of others.  In the season ahead, I want to soften my heart, speak with kindness, reject darkness in myself, love my family, cherish life, and serve the poor.  That’s a holiday true to eternal values, and one Dickens would approve.  Let us strive to make a difference for good in the world.  Let us refuse to give in to the darkness we see and hear.  Let us continually shine as beacons of charity.  Ultimately, it is only by giving away our light that we will find it. 

In the holiday season ahead, I wish you abundant peace, joy…..and light. 

(c) Doug Slagle, Minister to the Gathering at Northern Hills, All Rights Reserved

 

I’ve probably talked too much in past messages about my mom but I’m going to do so again.  My mom and dad married in 1958 and so, as a woman, my mom assumed the role of a 50’s and 60’s wife and mother.  Generally speaking, married women in those decades worked at home and devoted themselves to being housewives.  Instead of disliking that role, my mom embraced it. 

She was the consummate partner to my dad – working as a teacher to financially support him through medical school, quitting when he graduated, and then becoming an advocate and adornment for him at social functions.  She was also a hard working domestic engineer – what I like to call women or men whose career is to manage a family and home.  Mom raised three children, cooked meals, paid the bills, kept a clean and organized house and was the center of the family.  For me, she was a lioness who protected and loved me even though she knew I was different from other boys.

My mom was also quietly outgoing.  She smiled a lot and has always been unfailingly kind to friends, colleagues of my dad, and strangers she’d encounter.  People just like her natural warmth.  My sister has gently teased her about how she wears a smile as a default – not in a forced way – but genuinely.

Just before my youngest brother graduated from high school, mom must have realized she would soon not have much to do.  And so she volunteered at the Hospice of Cincinnati residence facility in Blue Ash.  She brought her abilities as a wife and mom to that role – showing kindness and a cheerful demeanor to the patients.  She particularly enjoyed meal times when she would make the rounds to sit and talk with patients, mostly about them – their work, families, travels and memories.

Several years ago, when mom’s dementia was in its early stages, she retired from Hospice after twenty-five years.  They have an award for volunteers who serve that amount of time, but they created a special one for mom – someone who’d served at least twenty-five hours a week for twenty-five years.   She’d become an institution.

This past June, when my family moved mom into a dementia care home, we were concerned she would not like it.  Instead, mom amazingly improved.  She’s happy and no longer experiences the frustrations and delusions she had before.  She’s once again in a place where she can help others and be a warm and cheerful presence.  She calls the nurses and aides “dear”, and she rarely asks for their help.  Even though she is frail and has difficulty walking, she tries to help them with their work – cleaning up after meals or assisting other patients. 

In August, the residence Director moved a 93 year old woman into my mom’s room.  And mom’s passion for being a friendly caregiver took over.  Even though this woman’s cognition and mobility is no worse than mom’s, my mother feels it’s her role to watch over and protect Mary.  My mom, despite her Alzheimer’s, is being true to what she’s always naturally been talented at doing – caring for, befriending and lifting up others.

I relate this as a way to introduce my message topic.  This month, the theme for my three messages is to have an attitude of gratitude through sharing our treasure, our time and, for today, our talent.  I believe that in order to be truly grateful, we will only appreciate the things we possess when we give them away.  I’m inspired by my mom – and others like her – who have a generosity gene.  They make me realize how far short I am in having a true attitude of gratitude.

I define talent as a natural ability or skill.  Thomas Jefferson said that talent determines a natural aristocracy.  We are not good because of class, race, wealth or ancestry.  We are special because of the talents we were born already having.  Indeed, any talents that we do have, they are gifts from nature – and not from anything we’ve done.

Pete Rose alluded to this fact when he noted that Willie Mays could throw better than him and Hank Aaron could hit more home runs.  But he, he has enthusiasm and hustle.  As Pete said, “Those are God-given talents too.”

Pete highlighted the intangible talents that people have.  We tend to think of a talent as a skill we can see or hear.  Talent, according to that notion, is an ability few others possess which brings success or wealth.  By thinking that way, however, we demean the less noticed talents like Pete’s enthusiasm or my mom’s caring cheerfulness.

Indeed, my mom confided to me that compared to my father, she had little to offer the world.  In her mind, his skill as a surgeon was far more important than her talent as a warm hearted person.  She implored me and my siblings to channel our abilities into some respected and well-paying career.

And, I tried to follow her advice.  I’ve always loved research, analysis and writing – and I have some ability in those areas.  So I channeled my ambitions in college toward going to law school, believing that profession best expressed my talents.  Instead of immediately going to law school after college, however, I spent a year working in a law firm.  I quickly discovered that a legal career was not for me.  And so I pursued what seemed the next most suitable and well paying profession for my abilities: business.  And I spent the next 18 years working in medical and hospital business administration – but I was not fulfilled.

Mostly by chance, I later got involved in church work – for many years as an active volunteer and Board member, then as a seminary student and for twelve years, up to now, as a paid minister.  The confluence of my talents and my passions finally aligned.  I found a career in my middle years through which I could express my more tangible talents of writing and analysis with my more intangible abilities to relate with people.  And I’ve never regretted it.  I’m blessed to really enjoy my work.

Experts say that is the primary way to identify one’s talent – when you have a passion and love for doing something.  Our talents are those abilities we have which we want to do.   When expressing one’s talent, a person should feel fully alive, fulfilled and passionate about it.  One should find some success at it.  A talent is something good about you that others praise you for having.

One commentator compared a person expressing his or her talent to the natural actions of animals.  Eagles typically fly between 75 and 125 miles a day.  Elephants roam approximately 50 miles a day.  Locked inside a cage, however, they cannot live according to their nature.  Set free to act and be according to how they were made, that is when an eagle or elephant is most beautiful.  And the same is true for us.  Leading a daily life where we do not practice our innate talents, we might as well be in locked cage.

Sophia Loren, the famed actress who, at 82, is still noted for her youthful beauty, once said, “There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love.  When you learn to tap into this source, you will truly have defeated age.”

She identified what gives us vitality and what will keep us young.  By using whatever talents we have, we will thrive.  And that touches on the spirituality of sharing talent.  To do so is not just a path to gratitude.  Sharing our unique talents is the way we define ourselves.  It’s the way we fulfill our meaning and purpose for living.  We were made to practice what is unique about us. 

My mom was made to be a person who serves others with cheerfulness.  And she’s naturally done that in every phase of her life.  Pete Rose was made to be a baseball player with a hard charging personality.  I was made with some abilities to minister.  None of us, however, should be egotistical about our talents.  They were given to us.  We simply were and are willing to use them.

And that speaks to another spiritual dimension of sharing talent.  Not only should we live out who and what we were made to be, we must use our abilities to pay forward the gifts nature provided us.  We must serve others with our talent.

In one of his well known remarks, Jesus similarly encouraged his followers.  People do not light a lamp and place it under a basket, he said.  People take a lamp and place it on a stand so that it illuminates those around it.  We must do the same with our talents.  We must fulfill the cosmic purpose for our existence. 

We can each shine our symbolic light up until the day we die.  My mom is living out that ethic.  We may not express our talents in the same way forever, but we can teach, encourage, empower, and model our talents to others all our lives.  As Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.”

Psychologists encourage everyone to discover and practice their talents.  To do that, we should ask close friends to identify our one or two special abilities.   We should listen to what others praise about us.  We should be willing to try new things.  We should ponder what comes naturally to us and what we love to do.  We should make a list of the ten tangible and intangible good qualities about us – for example, “I’m good at organizing things”, “I give good advice”, “I enjoy hosting and entertaining”, or “I like to help people.”

One should take classes in an area of interest and ability.  One should volunteer in a role that uses a talent.  Above all, one should disconnect from using a talent only in ways that bring money or attention.  We must let go of doing what we think is best, and instead do that which gives us honest joy.  When we do that, we will have tapped into our inner desire to serve, love and thrive..

If we fail to discover and express our individual talents, we have  essentially stolen from the universe the gift of us.  This gift of you is like a sacred trust.  We’re endowed by nature with talent and with that comes the expectation we will use it.  When we don’t, we waste the resources of food, air, water and shelter we consume to survive.   An eagle that does not fly, an elephant that does not roam, a baseball player that does not play ball, a minister that does not serve or inspire, a doctor that does not compassionately heal, a caregiver that does not care – these are terrible, terrible tragedies.

Dear friends, my message series this month has asked us to adopt an attitude of gratitude by sharing ourselves and the things we value most – our treasure, time and talent.  With all sincerity, I ask you to honestly think about ways your heart calls you to generously share these 3 things. 

Too often we believe that when we share, we give something away.  The irony is that when we give, we in fact receive.  MJ Pierson recently reminded me that this congregation will only continue to grow in size of heart and numbers if it focuses not on its scarcity, but instead on its abundance.  The same is true for our attitudes of gratitude.  Our lives are not defined by hoarding.  Our lives are given lasting meaning by what we give.  Only by liberally sharing our treasure, time and talent will we understand how very blessed we are.          

And I wish you each much peace and joy – and a very Happy Thanksgiving.

Introduce Brad Barron and third Sunday every month Social Justice Spark when we highlight a cause or organization we support.  All cash offerings today will go to the organization and cause Brad will now speak about.

  

   

     

 

 

 

(c) Doug Slagle, Minister to the Gathering at Northern Hills, All Rights Reserved

There is a well known anonymous quote about the value of time.  Perhaps you have heard it.  “To realize the value of a year’s worth of time, ask a student who has just failed a final exam.  To realize the value of one month, ask a mother who just gave birth to a premature baby.  The value of one hour can be determined by asking a single mom who is paid an hourly wage.  The value of one minute might best be judged by someone who has just missed a flight or a train.  To realize the value of one second, ask a person who narrowly avoided a car accident.  And the value of a millisecond can be found by consulting the winner of an Olympic Silver medal.”

Time is a commodity with ironic qualities.  It seems infinite, and yet so very scarce.  Once spent, it is gone.  We cannot replace it.  In that regard, time has a huge value.  But, as economists point out, people often do not act that way.  Using the economic theory of marginal utility, that an item is only as valuable as its LEAST important use, our time is treated by many people as almost worthless.

Applying this theory, our least important use of time is to waste it – perhaps spending time watching some mindless TV show.   Since most of us have wasted time at some point in our lives, it would seem we value it cheaply.  We would never throw away something like gold or diamonds.  But, as my opening examples indicate, time is just like those commodities – it is scarce and precious even though we often use it poorly.

My message series this month is focused on the idea of having an attitude of gratitude.  To achieve that, I suggest three ways.  I suggested last week that sharing treasure – one’s money or material things – is one way to expand gratitude.  Next Sunday, I will examine how sharing our talent – the skills and life lessons learned – as one way to express gratitude.  Today, I consider how sharing the most valuable resource we have – time – is a way to be grateful.

I spent a major portion of my message last Sunday looking at the difference between the cost of something versus its intangible value.  The cost of things we pay for here, for instance, is a set amount.  The value of what we receive here, however, is I hope much, much higher.  If so, then my hope is we will pledge according to the added value we believe we receive.

To that end, I want to give some of my time in volunteering in the same way I give my money.  The cost of a year, a month or a minute might seem trivial but, as I pointed out earlier, they have priceless value to the student who failed an exam, the mom of a premature baby or a businesswoman who just missed a flight.

Determining the monetary cost of our time is easy.  Economists tell us to take the monthly amount of money we bring home, after taxes, and divide that by all of the of hours in a month.  Surprisingly, the average cost of one hours time for almost everyone – including executives and professionals – is depressingly less than $16.

Last Sunday, I used the example shown in a MasterCard commercial to illustrate the difference between the cost of something, compared to its value.  That commercial used the example two tickets to a baseball game, two sodas, two hot dogs and one autographed ball together costing about $200.  But having a meaningful conversation and creating lasting memories with your son or daughter at a baseball game, that is priceless.  As the commercial says, there are some things in life money CAN’T buy.

And clearly, even though the monetary cost to our time is low, the intangible value of our time is very high!

Interestingly, human understanding of time is mostly determined by a religious or non-religious view of it.  According to most world religions, time is something controlled by God.  It was made in order to organize human life.  Time, according to most religions, did not exist before God created the universe, and it will cease to exist when the universe ends at what will be an Apocalypse type finish.  Eternity will be one of peace and happiness for those in heaven, and unremitting torment for those in hell.

As we think about a religious concept of time, we must ask if it sounds reasonable.  Eternity in a place like heaven sounds wonderful, but would it really be so?  Absent sorrow, can we really understand joy?  If one’s existence is unending joy, would there be any need to work, or find meaning and purpose?  If some of the people I know are spending eternity in the fiery pit of hell, would my existence in heaven be so happy?  Indeed, doesn’t the fact that we will one day die add poignancy and value to life?  Can we really enjoy life without the contrasting fact of death?  Ultimately, don’t these questions lead one to doubt a religious understanding of God and time?

The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle had that doubt.  He believed that time has NO beginning or end.  The enlightenment philosopher John Locke believed the same, as do most modern scientists and physicists.   Time is something that can be quantified, measured and defined according to known physical properties – like radiation waves from certain atoms, or the rotation of planets around fixed stars.  Time, according to Aristotle and most scientists, does not exist outside the rational and physical laws of nature.  There is no unseen power that created it or controls it.

And this in an important point.  It supports my belief about the universe, life and theology.  God is not some outside, supernatural force that controls all things.  There is no god that will bring about a better existence.  There is no god who determines the order of our lives. I believe god is us.   It’s we who are the gods and goddesses responsible for building a better earth – for feeding the hungry, binding up the lame, healing the sick and loving family, friend and stranger.  We need look no farther than our own hearts and minds to find the god in each of us.

If that is so, then it is we who have control over the use and value of time.  For instance, we might spend an hour watching re-runs of a TV show like “Gilligan’s Island,”, or we might spend an hour reading the book Between the World and Me, by currently acclaimed author Ta-Nehisi Coates. 

We might spend an hour at a spa enjoying a face scrub and foot massage, or we might cook and serve lunch at a homeless shelter.  The economic cost of those hours of time, as I related earlier, will likely be small.  But the value of each is a different matter. 

Understanding the sting of racism, by reading the Coates book, will help empower empathy, wisdom and awareness – especially towards people of color.  Serving an hour at a homeless shelter will likewise foster compassion and empathy.   The value of hours are priceless.

These hours are invaluable because they have a multiplier effect added to them.  They pay value forward by improving the world far beyond their cost.  We can only imagine the racial reconciliation that could occur if every white person learned to empathize with the struggle of their Black, Latino or Muslim sisters and brothers.  We can only imagine how one lunch could help change the life of homeless youth. 

Last month, I sat and ate lunch with a young lady at the Sheakley Lighthouse Center who had recently learned she was several months pregnant.  She excitedly told me the dreams she had for her child – an apartment in which to live, ways she would read to him or her, and how she would make sure the child always felt loved.  It seems so small, and yet the lunch this congregation provided and served was one way to insure the health of that baby.  The monetary cost of hours given by three people to prepare her lunch and for 19 others was less than $30.  Tell me please, however, what is the value of those hours given?

Interestingly, numerous studies and experts show that the giving of time, through volunteer work, is a way to also add value to one’s own life.  Even though the motivation is to help others, volunteering benefits not just those served, but also the server.  The Wharton School of Business reports in a study of volunteers that most feel they have more free time than if they did not volunteer.  Much like people who donate money to charity feel wealthier than those who do not, volunteers find that giving away their time causes them to better value, and better manage, the rest of their time.

Numerous other studies indicate volunteers are healthier and happier than those who don’t share their time.  A 2002 study shows that persons who volunteer have half the mortality than those who don’t.  Volunteers have less heart disease, lower blood pressure, lower feelings of stress and depression, increased memory and cognition, and greater mobility.

The London School of Economics further reports that volunteers have higher levels of empathy and more social connections than do non-volunteers.  They are also happier.  Levels of self-reported contentment are 7% higher for those who volunteer once a month, 12% higher for those who volunteer bi-weekly, and 16% higher for people who serve weekly.  Study after study concludes the same result: giving away time in service to others has a double benefit – for the recipient and the giver.

I said last week that that this congregation, at least while I’m minister,  will never use guilt, shame or religious bribery to cajole you into pledging money.  We trust one another to give according to how our hearts and minds lead us.  (Nevertheless we have guards posted at the Sanctuary exit doors today to make sure you fill out Pledge form.  Not!)    

Trusting one another to pledge as they can is the same way we trust each other to give their time.   Members volunteer here not because they must, but because they know this congregation is, as we say, a beloved community.  We serve here much like we serve in our homes and families – because we love one another.

One member here who recently agreed to take on a team leadership role told me how honored and privileged it felt to be both asked and trusted for the position.  I was touched by that sincere expression.  The role this person has taken on is one that often goes unseen but is vital to our growth in numbers and our strong sense of community.   

Many volunteer roles here are similar.  They are done largely unrecognized but are so very, very important.  Volunteers here give their time in thousands of ways that insure not just the strength of this congregation, but the strength we will have to touch, serve and change for the better our city and world.

We count the dollars given here but we don’t count the hours volunteered.  If there was a bank account of hours volunteered, however, this would be a wealthy congregation.  What I ask each of us to do is examine the value of our time.  And then I ask us to consider that if we love this place, if we love one another and are grateful for the love we receive here, we will resolve to each volunteer as many valuable hours as we can.  If you want to volunteer but don’t know where, please see me, a board member or Richard Thornton.  There is always much to do for people of all ages and all abilities.

Since we are each proverbial gods and goddesses – responsible for giving, loving and serving others until the day we die – then it is the use of our most valuable asset – time – that will have a lasting impact.  Yes, we can donate our treasure.  But money and things can always be replaced.  The hours, minutes and seconds of time that we share – to tutor a child, serve a meal, act for social justice, offer an encouraging word to another, serve on a committee, or gently be a loving presence in someone else’s life – these are priceless legacies we build on the sands of time.   Let us each insure our time has value, and our hearts are filled with gratitude, by giving some time away to improve our world.

I wish you all much peace and joy!

(c) Doug Slagle, Minister to the Gathering at Northern Hills, All Rights Reserved

Most of us have seen or heard MasterCard commercials.  Their recurring tagline is: “There are some things in life money can’t buy.  For everything else, there’s MasterCard.”  This slogan has been used for almost twenty years – one of the longest advertising campaigns by any company, at any time.  It has won numerous awards.  It’s been translated into multiple languages and shown around the world.  The campaign has flourished under the leadership of four different MasterCard CEO’s.  As many analysts note, the ads takes a simple and universal truth and applies it to real life.

The first commercial in the campaign was shown during the 1997 World Series.  It showed a father and son cheering, laughing and enjoying a baseball game together.  The voice over words to that scene were short and simple.  “Two tickets: $46; two hot dogs, two popcorns, two sodas: $27; one autographed baseball: $50; real conversation with 11-year-old son: Priceless.”  And then the MasterCard logo appears on the screen with the famous tagline.  That’s all there was to it, and yet the commercial became one of the most successful ads ever.

What is profound about the commercial is that it touches on how we might think about money and material things.  As an example, the current Apple I-Phone 7 costs $225 to manufacture, advertise and sell.  But the retail price of the phone, which is never discounted, is $649.  Even for high priced products, that is a huge increase.  Allowing for a reasonable profit margin, an I-Phone should be priced around $350 to $400.  But, despite its premium price, tens of millions of people around the world buy one.

Why do people pay such a price for I-Phones?  Because most consumers believe they add tremendous value to their lives.  For me, I use my I-Phone 6 as my banker.  I’ve not set foot in a bank for years.  I deposit checks, pay bills, and manage my finances on it.  I also use it as my GPS driving guide.  I read the New York Times on it.  I watch movies on it.  I text, email and even write parts of Sunday messages on it.  It is almost invaluable to me.  I am more than willing to pay a high premium for an I-Phone.

Economists say that the goal for any organization is to maximize the value of what they provide that is well above the cost to produce it.  As consumers, we don’t judge a product on the cost of its component parts and the labor put into it.  We judge a product based on the value it does or does not provide.  The MasterCard commercial speaks to this point.  A credit card enables someone to pay for the cost of baseball tickets.  Most games are fun experiences, but they are often barely remembered two weeks later.  More importantly, however, is the idea that a credit card also enables someone to reap the increased value of a baseball game.  If it allows you to share meaningful time with someone you love – your daughter or son for example – the cost of the tickets are trivial.  You’d gladly spend thousands if they helped create valuable lifetime memories.  As Warren Buffet – who is one of the world’s most successful businessmen says, “Price is what you pay.  VALUE is what you get.”

And that frames my message theme for this month of Thanksgiving. How can sharing the three primary things we “own” in life – our treasure, our time and our talent – help us have a stronger attitude of gratitude?  Yes, we should each be grateful for these three life gifts but, more importantly, how does sharing these things help us live with an attitude of gratitude?

  Jennifer Schmahl and Dave Hester just spoke to us about the importance of today’s celebration.  Today is our annual event to share and pledge our treasure in order to insure that this place will be well funded for another year.   As we think about that, today IS a reason to celebrate!

But I also understand how some people might think their church’s pledge Sunday is not one to celebrate.  In some churches, Pledge Sunday might as well be called “Stick-up Sunday”.  In those churches, the minister and other leaders command members to part with larges sums of their hard earned money.  At one church I won’t name, on a recent pledge Sunday, the minister shouted to his congregation, “You all are going to think I’m crazy, but God says give again!  God says give everything; don’t hold anything back!”

The church band then played very upbeat music and this minister shouted, “God says run to the altar and give!”  Members surged forward and gave not just lots of money, but their expensive shoes, watches and diamond rings.

A church like that employs guilt, obligation and religious bribery to cajole people into giving.  God will withhold her blessings if you don’t give enough, they say.  She will reward you if you give a lot.

But an important question needs to be asked.  What motivates such church members to give?  Is it because they deeply want to give?  Is it because they value and are grateful for all of the things they gain from being a member?  Or, are they giving out of compulsion and a desire not to look bad in the eyes of others – or to somehow gain admission to heaven? 

Fortunately, Celebration or Pledge Sundays are not like that here.  Nor is any other Sunday.  We trust one another to give according to what our hearts and minds honestly lead us to give.  No guilt.  No judgement.  No false bribery.

But if we are to use our hearts and minds to guide us in what our annual pledge should be, I encourage us each to remember the universal truth found in the MasterCard commercial.  That advertising message speaks about our treasure – our money and material things – but it also importantly addresses the idea of gratitude for our countless priceless blessings.  Such are things money can’t buy like contentment, health, love, a life legacy, or meaning and purpose.  And, just like those rewards, so too are the blessings we receive here – the kinds of things which money makes happen but which are of intangible value.    

In that regard, perhaps we might re-frame the MasterCard commercial in a way that speaks to the Gathering at Northern Hills.  “Building maintenance and repairs: $10,000; Office supplies, internet and telephone: $7250; Sunday morning music supplies, guest speaker fees and Quimby room hospitality supplies: $6795; staff payroll and benefits: $85,000; empowering and changing lives for the better, Priceless.”

Or, regarding our charitable outreach work, a commercial might say, “Lunch food for 125 children, $256; gasoline to transport the food, supplies, and twelve volunteers, $30; cost of staff time to plan and implement the outreach, $185; cooking for, serving, loving on and eating lunch with 125 kids who have no place to call home, Priceless.”

And these are but two examples of many other MasterCard-like commercials that could be produced about us.  The cost of things provided here are substantial.  It costs a lot to heat and cool our building.  My salary and health insurance make up approximately 35% of this year’s budget.   The supplies we use in our office, the computer and copier we use to help make Sundays happen, they are not cheap.

But the most important line item in those calculations, one that is impossible to put in our budget, is the intangible value this congregation gains as a result of money spent.  What is the value of experiences you have here?  What is the value of the friends you’ve made here and the time you spend with them?  What value do you place on the feelings and experiences you gain from serving on a committee, teaching our children, managing our hospitality or volunteering with us at the Freestore, Lighthouse Center for Youth, UpSpring or Inter-Faith Hospitality Network? 

How much value do you apply to insights or ways you might be moved by a message from me or a guest speaker? How valuable to you is Michael’s music that entertains and inspires you?  How valuable are the many ways this congregation affects all of our lives – how GNH challenges us to listen to our better angels, how it prompts our compassion impulses, how it enables us to serve the least of those in our society?

I imagine the value of all of these things are priceless.  Many of them are hopefully invaluable to you.  They are things that have helped determine who you are, how you think and how you strive to be at home, work and play. 

Our budget for the current year is approximately $150,000.  It will likely be higher in 2017 and, as Dave reported, we’re losing income from no longer renting our space.  Whatever the 2017 budget is, I believe with all of my heart that all we offer and do here in a year’s time, that all we do for ourselves, our families, our children, and those who live on the margins of life – that all of these things add up to a year’s value far, far in excess of $150,000.

If that is the case, then how do we determine what to pledge according to the cost plus extra value that we receive?  The Unitarian Universalist Association has prepared a tool that helps anyone reasonably determine what to pledge based on two factors.  First: what can you or your family afford to give based on annual income?  Second: what is the value you or your family believe you get from this community?

If you will, please look at the Fair Share table that is an insert in your programs.  As you will note on the first page, if one is a “Supporter” of the Gathering at Northern Hills, that means the congregation is a significant part of his or her life.  At the next level, one is a “Sustainer” of the congregation if it is a central part of one’s life.  A person is a “Visionary” if the congregation has a unique or special importance in one’s life.  Finally, one is a “Transformer” if the he or she is fully and totally committed to the success of the congregation.

Once you determine what the Gathering at Northern Hills means to you – which is the extra value you believe you get here – it is then a matter of finding your monthly income level and pledging the Fair Share per cent of that income.   

       For example, someone who considers himself or herself to be a “Sustainer”, and who makes $50,000 annually, can see that the Fair Share table recommends a pledge of 4% of monthly income – or $160.00 per month.  That person has reasonably determined this congregation enjoys a central role in his or her life and that, most likely, he or she believes the value of its services exceeds the costs.  A “Visionary” or “Transforming” giver believes the value received greatly exceeds the budgeted costs.

The beauty of the Fair Share table is that you determine how much value you believe you get.  The Board has no idea what category you place yourself.  I don’t either.  Only our Treasurer knows who pledges what and is kept strictly confidential.  Ministers can and should speak to the importance of supporting a community like ours.  But ministers should never have access to church bank accounts nor should they know who gives, and the amounts given.  In my eyes, every member and every visitor is equal, no matter what they give.  I am able to treat everyone with the same respect and love precisely because I have no idea who pledges and the amount they pledge.

The ultimate point in this message is to remind each of us that money is a tool by which we pay for goods and services.  As a tool, however, it serves its purpose objectively, but without feeling and heart.  Money is a great tool for determining the cost of things, but it’s imperfect in determining the intangible value of things.  My encouragement to us all is that when we consider the gratitude for all that we have – family, friends, this congregation, life itself – we cannot just think of their costs.  Money can buy a house, but it cannot make a home.  Money can pay for a minister and a church building, but it cannot create a beloved and inspirational community.  If you live in a house that is also a nurturing home because of the people in it, you have a thing of priceless value.  If we are a part of a congregation that inspires and deeply cares for others, then we a part of something with priceless value.

I encourage us each to contemplate the value of this community and then use the Fair Share table to pledge accordingly.  If we do that, I believe the gratitude we have for ALL things in life will lead us to greater contentment, and a realization of the priceless wealth we possess.

And I wish you each much peace and joy.

While Michael plays some background music, let us now take a few minutes to quietly reflect on the value we receive from this community.  At the conclusion of this service, if you wish, you may drop a completed 2017 pledge sheet into the locked box at the sanctuary exit.  Thank you all!