April 29, 2018

Love is the spirit of this program. The music spans many genres but has unifying themes of justice, love, learning and hope. The messages come from podcasts, sermons and readings from Unitarian-Universalist and other allied sources in liberal religion.  The title of this program comes from the words of a beloved Unitarian-Universalist hymn, “Spirit of Life,” including, “Sing in my heart all the stirrings of compassion” and “Move in the hand, giving life the shape of justice.”

Singer and activist Michael Franti is a kindred spirit to justice-seeking and love-expanding people everywhere.

Braver Wiser

"The Strength That Defines Us"

Rayla D. Mattson

Unitarian Society of Hartford, Conn.

Sermon

"Should We Keep Hope Alive?"

The Rev. Amanda Poppei

Washington Ethical Society, Washington, D.C., Unitarian-Universalist

Message

"Living Revision" (Excerpt)

Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew

Skinner House Books

Natural Silence

"Misty River Dawn"

Andrew Skeotch

ListeningEarth.com

World Religions

Today many Buddhists will celebrate Vesakha, a holiday called by various names in various countries, but informally known as the Buddha’s Birthday.  Gauthama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, was an ascetic and sage who is believed to have lived and taught mostly in the eastern part of ancient India sometime between the sixth and fourth centuries B-C-E.  His birthday in May was fixed by a conference of Buddhists in 19-50.  Holiday traditions vary by nation and ethnicity.  In Japan, the faithful pour tea on Buddha statues.  In Sri Lanka, people hang colorful lanterns outside their homes.  In Nepal, thousands flock to the city where tradition holds the Buddha was born, Lumbini, home to numerous temples near the border with India.

Monday is the birthday, in New Hampshire in 1771, of Hosea Ballou, one of the founders of Universalism.  A self-educated rural man, he was spurned by the Boston Unitarian elite and preached his liberal faith to everyday people, men and women of the laboring classes.  He called theology a science of human experience.  He believed in universal salvation, the origin of the word “universalism,” meaning the belief that a loving God would not condemn human beings to eternal damnation in a hell.  He insisted that we were created to be fulfilled and happy.  In no small part thanks to Ballou, by the end of the 19th century, one out of every eight Americans called themselves Universalists.

Tuesday in Zoroastrianism is Maidyozarem Gahambar, the mid-spring festival, one of six holidays mentioned in the Zoroastrian scripture, the Avesta.  There are about 200,000 Zoroastrians worldwide.  Most of them are located in India and Iran, the latter being where the religion began in the second millennium BCE.  During the five-day seasonal festivals, the faithful will pray and gather for large communal meals.  In Iran, tradition calls for aush, a noodle, chick pea and spinach soup; and sirog, a fried bread.

The mid-spring festival in Western cultures is called May Day, May first, Tuesday.  The holiday’s religious origins go back to pagan Rome, Germanic countries and the British Isles.  Christianity morphed the celebrations into feasts celebrating saints and the Virgin Mary.  Modern pagans and Wiccans have recast the holiday as Beltane, most commonly involving fires and flowers.  Secular observances vary greatly by country.  In Savannah, on May Day, public school children will dance around a maypole on Calhoun Square.

In Japan, mid-spring brings Golden Week, with several public holidays that might or might not be infused with religious observance in the national-religious Shinto tradition.  Among the holidays, Thursday will be Greenery Day, a day to commune with nature; and Friday will be Children’s Day.  For most Japanese, the holidays are simply a week off.

On Thursday, many Muslims will celebrate Lailat al-Bara’ah, the Night of Forgiveness.  The faithful regard it as a night when people’s fortunes for the coming year are decided and when Allah may forgive sinners.  In some regions, this is also a night when one’s deceased ancestors are honored.  Holiday traditions include candle-lit street processions, large fireworks displays, prayer vigils and making sweets to give to neighbors.

Thursday in the Jewish faith is Lag B’Omer, celebrating second century rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai.  A leading disciple of the “Chief of Sages” Rabbi Akiva, Bar Yochai is said to have revealed the deepest secrets of the kabbalah in the form of the Zohar, the Book of Splendor, a landmark text in Jewish mysticism.  This association has spawned several well-known customs and practices on Lag B’Omer, including the lighting of bonfires, pilgrimages to the tomb of Bar Yochai in Israeli and various customs at the tomb itself.

On Thursday, many evangelical Christians in the United States will mark a National Day of Prayer.  An annual observance declared by Congress in 1952, at the height of the Cold War, and set into law by conservative icon Ronald Reagan in 1988, its Task Force is currently chaired by Shirley Dobson, wife of James Dobson, the rightwing Christian founder of Focus on the Family and Family Research Council.  In response, many secular humanists and religious liberals on Thursday will mark a National Day of Reason.

Friday is the birthday, in 1796, of Horace Mann, the forefather of the American public education movement.  A Massachusetts Congressman and Unitarian, he befriended many influential Unitarians of his age, including Jared Sparks, Theodore Parker and William Ellery Channing.  In his life’s greatest work, he argued for state-sponsored schools that were universal, free and, most controversially, non-sectarian.  Mann believed that public schools should teach those ethical principles that are common across Christianity but not those doctrines about which Christians disagreed.  What resulted was public education based on lowest-common-denominator Protestant beliefs.  Today, both religious liberals and conservatives find arguments to support and oppose in his vision for education.

And now, for Vesakha, the Buddha’s birthday, a song about the Buddha’s birth by the Welsh-born, now-Australian Buddhist teacher, author and singer Andrew Williams.

Sermon

"A Thousand Prayers of Hope"

The Rev. Elea Kemler

First Parish Church, Groton, Mass., Unitarian-Universalist

Message

TBD

Conclusion

Seven Principles and Six Sources of Unitarian-Universalism