2021 01 10 Worship Service, Sunday After Insurrection

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Laughter] [Music] so so [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] so [Laughter] so [Laughter] so [Music] gladness [Music] may it bring faith [Music] is [Music] each face may it bring faith [Music] oh [Music] upon each phase [Music] welcome welcome to live oak unitarian universalist church i'm reverend joanna i'm so glad that we can be together after this week here we are on the sunday after an attempted insurrection and an insurrection not guided by high ideals but guided specifically with a desire to subvert our high ideals of democracy and noble elected public service i'm so glad that i have a church community that i am a part of and that i get to return to even if it's online every week especially when weeks like this one with all their complexity happen if this is your first time with us i'm so glad you found us know that you are so welcome here after the service if you want to know more about us go to live oaku.org you'll find a link for our newsletter you'll even find a link to sort of a online visitors table that we do every sunday it's called just for visitors you can click on that and if you have any questions about live oak we'll have a couple of members there who can answer those questions for you during the holocaust that we had a thing called the unitarian service committee and they sent a couple of people over to europe to try and help people escape and they needed a symbol something that no matter what language you spoke you could see this symbol and know that it stood for truth and it stood for help and the symbol that they chose was that of a flaming chalice and so now practically all uu churches whenever we gather on sunday or for other gatherings we begin our service by lighting our own chalice and so if you have a candle or a chalice near please draw it towards you as we light our chalices together [Music] foreign [Music] so [Music] shall never cry [Music] these shall walk softly through these [Music] shrine with [Music] to keep [Music] january 6th 2021 my dearest kay today something happened in our country which has me both sad and angry you probably didn't see it on the news because you are so young but i trust you will learn about it in history classes when you're older or your mommy and daddy will tell you about it today was a day that our elected representatives gathered at the national capital to make the final count of the electoral votes and certify that joe biden is our new president their process was disrupted by an angry fearful mob of people who came to create chaos and to try to stop congress from fulfilling their duty to the people who elected them they were encouraged to act this way by the outgoing president who was mad that he lost you know how sometimes you want something and you don't get it and you throw a little fit well he threw a really big fit and he invited all of his followers to join him i can't say that i'm surprised all this happened sad embarrassed ashamed angry but not surprised it's a hard fact that power can lead people to be greedy and selfish or maybe that people who are greedy and selfish are attracted to power if that kind of person is in a position of leadership that kind of position that the presidency holds they can wrongly use that leadership to get more power for themselves rather than leading from place of compassion and understanding for the people that they were elected to serve what this mob did was wrong what the president did was wrong and i don't know exactly what happens next there are people on both sides and they aren't really talking to each other except for in hateful ways sometimes sometimes i think the united states has been asleep and is just starting to wake up as a country we have some wonderful ideas and ideals but we aren't too good at living up to them and we aren't too good at honoring our promises and and sadly there are too many people in our country who are hurting and don't have a voice in our system i most want to tell you that even though what happened might make you afraid don't close your eyes or your heart don't seek power over others as you get older use your words to inspire acts of compassion and create justice in the world listen to that still small voice that makes you human and connects you to the universe i love you signed omar do i am open and i am willing for to be hopeless would seem so strange it dishonors those who go before us so lift me up to the light of change there is hurting in my family there is sorrow in my town there is panic [Applause] [Music] but i am open and i am willing for to be hopeless it seems so strange it dishonors those who go before us so lift me up to the light of change may the children see more clearly may the elders [Music] even though it burns our eyes [Music] so [Music] so lift me up [Music] give me a desert to hold my fears give me a sunset to hold my wonder give me an ocean to hold my tears for i am open and i am willing for to be hopeless would seem so strange it dishonors those who go before us so lift me [Music] from a collection of writings that affirms mankind entitled the people yes written by a universalist carl sandberg lincoln he was a mystery in smoke and flags saying yes to smoke yes to flags yes to the paradoxes of democracy yes to the hopes of government of the people by the people and for the people no to debauchery of the public mind no to personal malice nursed and fed yes to the constitution when i help no to the constitution when a hindrance yes to man as a struggler amid illusions each man fated to answer for himself which of the faiths and illusions of mankind must i choose for my own sustaining light to bring me beyond the present wilderness lincoln was he a poet and did he write verses quote i have not willingly planted a thorn in any man's bosom i shall do nothing through malice what i deal with is too vast for malice close quote death was in the air so was birth on wednesday january 6 2021 a new day that will live in infamy my mother called me she had turned 90 just a month ago in december and she was reflecting back on all the things that she has seen in her life she says that she can remember being a little girl during world war ii and knowing that bombs from germany could drop on the united states and she remembered being a mother of young children during the cuban missile crisis and knowing that the united states could be attacked by russia she said though that what she was seeing on that day on tv she never could have imagined americans actual americans storming the capital in an attempt to overthrow a legitimate election cheered on by the president of the united states and other elected congress people she and i were both in a feeling of of rage and also completely heartsick to see this happen gangs of white americans storming the capital and that detail is not insignificant because you can't separate out the racism from what happened i was thinking and i'm sure many of you were too i was thinking about what this would look like if those were black faces storming the capital i didn't think that there would be anyone any capitol police holding open doors for them we know that wouldn't happen we know that there would have been tremendous bloodshed and you can't separate out the racism from the motivations of these people the people who forced their way in who forced their way past the barricades and broke windows and got their way into the capital were steeped in racism the person who made his way to the front of the senate to stand on the diocese there had a ku klux klan tattooed on himself others marched through the capitol building carrying confederate flags one had on a nazi t-shirt saying that said something about camp auschwitz these are not insignificant details this is part of the energy that was propelling them forward their racism and their own feelings of white superiority and the way yes that they were treated by those who should have been protecting the capital and then seemingly just minutes later online i began seeing the people who have supported the current president supported this movement of hate and how they all of a sudden the people who had been until they went into the capital they had been cheering them on calling them patriots all of a sudden they backed away from that and they began disavowing it and not disavowing what their teammates had done but instead claiming that no no those those were not trumpers those were not proud boys those were actually antifa dressed up as the bad guys that part that part didn't surprise me i've been seeing that my whole life i grew up in texas and the town where i went to high school was one of those areas where you had one great big in this case southern baptist church that to this unitarian kid felt like 80 to 90 percent of the school attended and when i was in college i had to go back to that area and testify against the person who had been my high school drama teacher because he had done some really bad things and his whole church showed up to defend him because for their thinking it was he was a good christian therefore he couldn't have done these things rather than of course take the logical step of maybe if he did these things he actually was not a good christian so i have been seeing this kind of thing my entire life people get so fused to an idea or a tribe uh some type of group or a concept they become so fused that their very identity is a part of it and so when they are faced with some very hard facts about those ideas or about those other people they can't take it and so they come up with the most fantastical ideas to try and work their way around it rather than accept the fact that they were wrong so no that part didn't surprise me at all disgust me yes it will never be so normalized that i am not disgusted but not surprised but i absolutely was repulsed by what i saw and if you were to good there is good reason for that because see this this was not just some sort of american patriotism that was rising up in us this for us was watching one of our religious tenets a tenet of unitarian universalism be profaned democracy for us is not just some sort of civil secular idea for us it is a religious tenet it is part of our fifth principle of the seven principles of unitarian universalism we have it enshrined as our respect for the use of the democratic process and that goes back much farther in our religion than even the principles themselves it is based in a profound and radical belief in the equality of all people it is based in the idea that all people are created equal that when someone is born they are not of more or less value than anyone else who is born we are all born of equal significant value that is what is underneath this belief this tenet this value about democracy because if you believe that all people all people not just the people that the founders of the united states envisioned but a vision that was even larger than themselves all people regardless of color regardless of economics regardless of everything if you believe that all people are equal then you will believe that every person has a right to elect the people who will represent them in making laws and creating policy one person one vote yes we can certainly get into the complication that is the electoral college that is a sermon for another day but even with the electoral college what is underneath that is this principle of one person one vote and no one person's vote is allowed to overtake the votes of someone else no elected leader is allowed to decide that your vote does not count and by god no violent mob is allowed to take that vote from you we saw the capital being defiled that's what it was breaking things breaking into offices making messes breaking furniture ripping off things we saw it being defiled and as a symbol of the democracy that we hold dear we saw something sacred being profaned and those mobs did not arrive there themselves i'm sure that many sociologists and historians are going to look back on this and be able to draw a line going back many many years to get to this moment but right now i am more concerned with the really obvious really direct causal link and we cannot avoid that we cannot act like it was just politics the president of the united states invited these people to come on this date to the capitol to do what they did on december 19th he tweeted big protest in dc on january 6th be there be wild one of his followers tweeted to him and said the cavalry is coming mr president to which he responded by tweeting back a great honor and when at last he was somehow forced to create a video to put out telling them to cease and desist the violence he first reiterated all of the lies that drove them there in the first place and then ended by saying we love you you're very special go home and go home in peace when i heard that well it was it was the words of the hebrew bible that that came to me in the sixth book of jeremiah they dressed the wound of my people as though it were not serious peace peace they say when there is no peace are they ashamed of their detestable conduct no they have no shame at all they do not even know how to blush when i'm talking about shame i don't i don't speak of it lightly it can be very destructive but shame absolutely should be given over to what we saw and to all of the people who poured gasoline onto this all of the senators and the republicans who allowed the flames to to grow who encouraged all of the doubt about what has been our pride a fair election and a peaceful transfer of power yes there should be shame meted out they should blush and we should have consequences more than that for those senators and congressmen who tried to overthrow the will of the people they should be censured they should be stripped of committee assignments and as soon as possible they should be removed from office maybe it won't happen in terms of a recall maybe we will have to wait until their next election but we will remember we must remember all that has happened this week we have lived through yet another very historical week layers upon layers of history let's remember them let's take action on the things that we should take action on let's not just remember the last layer the most recent layer of this week that we saw because powerful good and bad things were happening all week long we should remember as heather cox richardson the wonderful historian wrote that six senators and more than half of the house republicans backed an attempt to overthrow our government in favor of a man caught on tape just four days ago trying to strong-arm a state election official into falsifying election results we should remember that we should tell that part of history to our children should we be so lucky as to be 90 years old and looking back at our lives [Music] and we should also remember and tell them this because something really good happened to as stacey abrams wrote on january 6 while today's terrible display of terror and meanness shakes us let us remember a jewish son of an immigrant and the first black senator from georgia will join a catholic president of the united states and the first woman black plus indian vice president in our nation's capital god bless america [Music] um [Music] [Music] turn back turn back forth where thy foolish ways old now is earth and none may count its days yet humankind whose head is crowned with flame still will not hear the inner god proclaim turn back turn back force where thy foolish ways earth might be fair its people glad and wise age after age our tragic empires rise build while we dream and in that dreaming weep would we but wake from out our haunted sleep birth might be fair and people glad and wise earth shall be fair and all its people won't [Music] from earth to sky heals forth in joy that old undaunted cry earth shall be fair and all is [Music] [Music] [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] do [Music] [Laughter] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] do [Music] [Music] may we shine in the [Music] may we shine thank you for being here this morning thank you for bringing your energy and your presence here as we gather yet again to try and make some sort of sense out of this very strange world that we are living in am i mad yes i am still enraged at all that has happened and yet i am still hopeful i see my rage mirrored in the faces of people around me some whom i don't even know i just see them online some are public figures i see their heartbreak that mirrors mine and that gives me hope because when we are heartbroken when we are enraged there is power in that power to make significant change and power to make sure that things like what we have seen that have repulsed us cannot happen again peace peace where there is no peace yes but we can create a real peace that is based on our vision of beloved community that is based in wholeness and democracy and justice for all people yes i am still hopeful and i am so glad that we have each other to continue to share our hope with and lift us up when we lose our hope and light our candle yet again so go in peace go in power and go with determination when we will be together and no longer will we live in fear and the children will smile without wondering whether [Music] you and me wait and see wait and see [Music] [Applause] this is the truth of who i am and it's taken me my whole life to celebrate i won't go back you can give me a number slap on a label tell me i won't be welcome at your table but i won't bow down to the tyrants anymore i know what to do i've been here before always [Music] [Music] this is the truth and it's taken the world till now to take an honest look around there are lies on the tv lies in the paper lies on my phone just grown from the paper and i won't be fooled by the liars anymore this is [Applause] [Music] [Music] there are more of us [Applause] [Music] but we have a common peril and we have a common goal the parents are dead the learing uncles of [Music] we are made for this [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] this is the truth we've always known [Music] there isn't a lightning fold to set things right to bring us home it's gonna take some of us when one gets weak it means it's your [Applause] [Music] turn [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] always fall [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] do [Music] so [Music] do [Music] do [Music] do [Music] do [Music] so [Music] [Music] do 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Channel: Live Oak Unitarian Universalist Church

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Id: j5XDn6zAZT8

Length: 84min 15sec (5055 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 10 2021