Let me begin with gratitude to our Unitarian Universalist choir for sharing A Thousand Beautiful Things, a song from Annie Lennox, this past Sunday.   I begin with gratitude because it brings a balance to the many challenges of the 21st century.   The song itself offered a balm of healing for my soul and that of many others.  Thank you.

            Indeed we are living in challenging times as well as inspirational times.  The human consciousness in terms of our interrelatedness is growing but also meeting with opposition.   Technological changes bring new hopes and concerns about who we are as a species.  And I hear the weariness, sometimes, in your voices as you share your concerns---weary from the violence which continues to shatter our country and our world, weary from the shameless blaming and stereotyping which sharply occludes our views of one another as human beings, weary of predatory capitalism which creates economic oligarchies throughout our world, weary of corporations being people, weary of political rhetoric and tweets which reveal an unsettled democracy, weary of Climate Change denial, weary from the realities of climate change.  And yet, I also witness this congregation's passion and compassion on a daily basis.  I witness our social justice task forces renewing themselves to change the world.  I witness the love, respect and concern we have for one another.  We are not a perfect community, but we are a steadfast liberal religious congregation.   We gathering together to remember who we are when we have forgotten.  We gather...Seeking the Spirit. Building Community. Changing the World.

          As part of our worship service Sunday, we offered these words from the United Nations Environmental Sabbath Program:

We have forgotten who we are.
We have alienated ourselves from the unfolding of the cosmos.
We have become estranged from the movements of the earth.
We have turned our backs on the cycles of life.

We have sought only our own security.
We have exploited simply for our own ends.
We have distorted our knowledge.
We have abused our power.

We who have lost our sense and our senses - our touch, our smell, our vision of who we are; we who frantically force and press all things, without rest for body or spirit, hurting our earth and injuring ourselves:

We call a halt.

We want to rest. We need to rest and allow the earth to rest.  We need to reflect and to rediscover the mystery that lives in us, that is the ground of every unique expression of life, the source of the fascination that calls all things to communion.

We declare a Sabbath, a space of quiet: for simple being and letting be; for recovering the great, forgotten truths; for learning how to live again.

Today we know of the energy that moves all things: the oneness of existence, the diversity and uniqueness of every moment of creation, every shape and form, the attraction, the allurement, the fascination that all things have for one another.

Humbled by our knowledge, chastened by surprising revelations, with awe and reverence we come before the mystery of life.

        In gratitude to friends and members of this congregation and all you do to heal yourselves and the world around us.  May you each be granted the blessing of a Sabbath.

Peace, MAM