 That's a huge thing. Would you be able to do this? I did it on machine. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it with a shirt. I'm going to do it with a shirt. I'm going to do it with a shirt. I'm going to do it with a shirt. of saying happy Labor Day weekend everybody and welcome to another Sunday here at First Unitarian Society where independent thinkers that would be us gather in a safe nurturing environment that would be this to explore issues of social spiritual and ethical significance as we try to make a difference in this world. I'm Steve Goldberg a proud extraordinarily exciting member of this congregation and I'm especially excited to extend a warm welcome to any guests visitors and newcomers if this is your first time at First Unitarian Society I think you'll find that it's a special place and we'll be conducting a guided tour after the service if you're interested in learning more about our special buildings just gather over here by the windows after the service and we'll take good care of you. And speaking of taking care of each other this is a perfect time to silence those pesky electronic devices that you will not need for the next hour because instead you'll be sitting back or leaning forward to enjoy today's service which I know will touch your heart stir your spirit and trigger one or two new thoughts. We're very glad that you're here and I invite you now to join in a moment of centering silence so we can be fully present with each other this morning. The remaining standing for opening words in the lighting of our chalice. As we gather this Labor Day weekend we invoke the deeper connections between matters of the spirit and the work done by all those who labor in our world and so many of our sources of wisdom call us to heed these connections from our principles themselves the inherent worth and dignity of every person justice equity compassion in human relations and the interconnected web of all of existence of which we are a part. We also invoke the spirit of our forebears Aiden Blue and Horace Greeley who set the tone with so many many other Unitarians in Universalists and their outspoken and wise support of justice within our labor movements. And as we come together this morning we invoke Jacob traps words that recalls to worship is to work with dedication and skill to worship is to pause from work and listened to a strain of music. May we now join together in the lighting of our chalice the words are printed in your order of service as together we say we enter this meeting house for kindness and comfort may rough worn hands and aching backs be healed we enter this meeting house dope and joke they are still regular we enter this house house of love invocation may our bonds of solidarity be strengthened may we enter this meeting house of courage and friendship may we proceed hand-in-hand toward freedom may you turn towards each other and offer a friendly greeting for this Labor Day we decided to do a special time of lifting up the importance of our connection with labor those that work and how it really highlights the interdependence that is such an important part of who we are and also to use that as an opportunity to lead into a special time of joys and sorrows as we move into a time of change where many people's lives go into a different rhythm as we enter into September and we have many newcomers and many folks who have made their way somewhere else both students and workers and so for just a moment I invite you before we move into joys and sorrows to take a moment to really center yourself here to find a way of sitting in the seat that feels balanced and if you're comfortable doing so for both of your legs your feet to connect with the earth itself to deeply center yourself and ground yourself with the planet earth and for just a moment I invite you if you're comfortable to do so to close your eyes and to let your breath bring you into this space fully with each breath may you invite in the very gift of life and hold it within your body as a blessing and as you breathe out may you offer that blessing and that life forward to all each breath bringing you more fully present in this time in place and from that place of grounding and life itself may we remember our connection with those people around the world that often work behind the scenes in difficult places and conditions often poorly paid and in difficult dangerous working conditions may we remember that in order for any event in our life from the food that we eat the homes where we live all that we do throughout the day there are thousands of people connected with our lives may we indeed offer them the blessing of healing for their hands and their backs given to hard work may we indeed find new ways to offer justice to all workers around the world may we indeed pull from a deep spirit of love and our own calling to feel connected with all people in their journey and may our courage and our friendship bond us in the continuing work of freedom and justice we turn our minds and our spirits also to our own lives and the lives of people that we love in a few moments we will invite you if you would like to do so to come forward and light a candle to represent either that joy or sorrow you are invited as you come forward to use the microphone that will be provided by our way minister and smiley introduce yourself and briefly share a message you may also wordlessly light a candle and return to your seat and if you are unable to light a candle we'll be happy to come to you and then light a candle on your behalf you may have arrived here with deep sorrows in your life that need the help of this community you may have arrived here with meaningful celebration and wish to share it either way this is an important part of our community and we invite you to feel welcome whether new or a continuing member to share this with our gathering so I now open the floor for the sharing of our sorrows and our joys to life because my son and daughter-in-law are in labor right now teacher is very nice in schools gonna start soon so I'm just really happy about that I'm Elizabeth I'm lighting a candle of healing for Richard scoby who's a member here he had knee replacement surgery and is recovering at home this candle for my teacher I like how she is nice and I hope she be nice forever my name is Claire and I'd like this candle in sorrow for yet another mass shooting in Texas and may we hold them in compassion and love I'm more home I'm letting this candle for my mom who visited me after a year from China and she also import my dog from China here her name is dumpling she's six year old we are three weeks away from our next daughter and there's a lot of work left to do but done a lot of work too and we're very excited hello this is a joy my partner and I just relocated to Madison two weeks ago we've been global nomads since last March and are very happy to not be living out of our tent anymore welcome welcome so speaking of moving this is in celebration of my son Max Goldberg I had the joy of moving him to Chicago this week where he's enrolled in the photography program at Columbia College Chicago good morning I am very grateful to be here today and to say that today is my granddaughter Hillary's birthday on on the first of September I am blessed I'm Brenda Warren and I just moved here two weeks ago from Tennessee you may can tell from my accent but my son and daughter in law and children and grandchildren here but I have to say I'm really homesick for Tennessee even though it's a great city I visited him them for the past 14 years once a year but I am homesick for Tennessee so that's why I'm letting him thank you this one is in many of John this one is in sorrow for the loss of the biodiversity that is occurring as we sit here particularly the Amazon and other precious places on our planet that are certain certainly at risk and if you could like two candles please this week we got a phone call that sort of called us into deeper connection with other communities of faith in our community in our world and we were asked to offer special prayers for Ava love and her family Ava is the daughter of one of the pastors at Heartland Church and son Prairie and she was in a serious accident last week and remains in critical condition across the street at Children's Hospital and so we join with other communities of faith and offering our own prayers and thinking about her with her being just so close to us hoping for healing and recovery and we light one last candle of all the joys and sorrows that are present both in this room and in our larger community in our live stream community on the radio that yet remain unspoken may we hold these in our hearts as well may these times remind us of the power of community the power of love the power of care we bless them all in the name of that love amen and blessed be I invite you to rise in the ways that we do and remember to keep your hymn hymnal in hand after we sing the hymn we'll join in a response of reading but let's begin with 134 our world is one world we invite our children as we sing together to go to summer fun we look forward to hearing about your adventures at the end of the service round about the clouds that cover us the rains that fall ink affect us all the widows with love or hate ways of wealth affect us all rich or just like a ship that bears us all if you will turn to the back of your hymnal number 567 567 we will turn to the poetry of marge piercy and I invite you to respond in the italicized portion of the text I want to be with people who submerge in the task who go into the fields to harvest and work in a row and pass the bag along who stand in the line and haul in their places who are not parlor generals and field deserters but move in a common rhythm when the food must come in or the fire be put out the work of the world is common as mud botched it smears the hand crumbles to dust but the thing worth doing well has shape that satisfies clean and evident greek amphoras for wine or oil hopi vases that held corn are put in museums but you know they were made to be used the pitcher cries for water to carry and a person for work that is real herein's our reading you may be seated before we move into our special music sorry about that linda I am going to do a quick introduction of our speakers so that she can move into the sermon we are really very very happy to have sister marie mcdonnell here she is a sensinalic catholic dominican and she said to make sure to add that she is of the edward variety she worked at edward college for 21 years in their spiritual guidance department and continues even though she is retired she is certainly very busy doing spiritual guidance obviously volunteering in various ways to speak about worker justice and has been active in worker justice for many many years she also will talk a little bit about our recipient today worker justice wisconsin sister marie we're very happy to have you here with us today may we receive the gift now of music what a lovely introduction from pastor dug and from the music and i just have been so aware of how the lyrics in the songs that we've sung already and in the reading are so appropriate for what i'm going to be speaking about today and for this labor day weekend so i thank you for welcoming me today and i know that you've had speakers before representing worker justice wisconsin but you might be more familiar with the name interfaith uh interfaith coalition for worker justice i almost forgot it because we're trying to make the transition to the new merged community name but um two people formerly on your staff here um were very connected with the interfaith coalition for worker justice um formerly on your staff uh one has served on the board with me for a number of years and the other has been the executive director of the organization um so your former senior minister michael schuler served on that board with me a few years ago and becky schiegel who was your peace and justice coordinator here uh was both the executive director herself and before that for a number of years was the assistant to the a different executive director in fact i found in my file um the program from september 6th 2015 and that was when michael was your labor in the pulpit speaker um i was obviously here because i had taken copious notes all over the program which proved to myself that i paid good attention to what what he was saying and it was an excellent reflection so the focus of michael's reflection that day which i would like to remind you of and remind myself of was quote work as a spiritual practice i think we don't often look at work in that way but i think it's important to have that um vision of it he says this is the gist of my notes from michael's uh talk four years ago a worker can make her or his work a spiritual practice by making of an ordinary job something extraordinary i really like that making of an ordinary job something extraordinary how does one do that first by consciously setting an intention for one's work so let's take a few moments right now within ourselves to think about what your own intention might be for the work that you do now either a paid job or at home on behalf of your family or others with whom you live or as a student a parent grandparents ask yourself what could be an interfaith uh excuse me what could be an intention that you make for yourself in the work that you do right now and secondly we need to resolve to act on that intention otherwise it won't matter what we intend if we don't act upon it then according to michael the third aspect is we try to do our work with mindfulness sometimes a small break in the midst of work can help us remember that intention and call it back to mind and renew it it might only take 30 seconds but if we're thinking of the intention for which we're doing this work it sometimes can help us a lot as we move through the work and finally we send out messages to the world as we work we can communicate love or suffering or compassion or boredom we choose what we communicate about our work and about the world so great thanks to michael for his thoughts on work as a spiritual practice before we go any further i'd like to share a little bit um doug has shared what i was thinking of sharing about myself and that is quite sufficient um but i would like to say too that um i served on the board for ic wj for about seven years until the beginning of 2018 and um more recently i began to serve on a new entity connected with worker justice wisconsin and that new entity is called a faith advisory council and we're in the very early stages of that we're not sure what we're to do yet but it's becoming clearer as we meet the organization itself is now called worker justice wisconsin because as i mentioned a merger happened in late 2017 which brought together two separate organizations which are and have really been very connected to each other but um it brought together the interfaith coalition of worker justice and the workers rights center that center is located in the wj office at the labor temple on south park street personnel at that sir at that center offer direct help to the 500 plus workers who come through their doors every day every every year 500 plus people different individuals come to the workers rights center every year to get help for a variety of reasons the new organization aims to do a number of things first to build worker power um we probably are very aware all of us that workers are kind of on the lower rung in society uh lots of times and especially immigrant workers um so to build worker power through labor rights education people need to know what their rights are as workers otherwise they cannot assert their own rights um the worker justice group also works toward collective action and community engagement and emphasis on interfaith involvement so all four aspects are really important the education aspect the collective action the engagement and interfaith aspects an example of the kind of work that we do is to implement wage theft safeguards to protect workers especially immigrant workers from broken promises by employers this happens this wage theft happens a lot all over the world and in madison of course um and it happens because employers can choose to pay a lower wage than was agreed upon with the worker or even pay no wage at all in some cases which is hard to believe but it does happen over 30 percent of the workers who come annually to the center are suffering wage theft so 30 percent of those 500 plus people have had their wages either underpaid or not paid at all so worker justice wisconsin aids workers to create signed contracts with employers so that there is written evidence of the legal agreements that have been made and therefore it was possible in 2018 for workers to reclaim almost a hundred thousand dollars in the madison area in southwest wisconsin a hundred thousand dollars in legally owed but unpaid wages that's quite significant for people the workers rights center also uses english and spanish handbooks to provide services like legal advocacy understanding of benefits and humane working conditions on part of the workers they need to know what they can expect from their employers and they also try to help people know that they need to organize and they have the right to organize and participate in collective bargaining we know in our area that's been um i would say under fire since 2011 hasn't it and we're maybe gradually trying to recoup that power of collective bargaining but it's a long road worker justice wisconsin also works to build relationships between the religious and the labor communities which is a natural collaboration virtually all faiths have teachings about the value of work and justice for workers here are four short statements from world religions that illustrate these teachings first from the jewish tradition from the book of deuteronomy quote you shall not defraud a poor and needy hired servant whether they be one of your own countrymen or one of the aliens who live in your communities you shall pay them each day's wage before sundown on the day itself since they are poor and look forward to the wages otherwise they will cry to god against you and you will be held guilty unquote next from the letter of james from the christian tradition quote listen the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields which you kept back by fraud cry out and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the god of hosts unquote and third from a manual of hadith from the muslim tradition quote when you hire compensate the workers and treat them fairly unquote and finally from the buddhist tradition quote aware of the suffering caused by exploitation social injustice stealing and oppression i vow to cultivate loving kindness and learn ways to work for the well-being of people animals plants and minerals unquote i think each of these each of us tries to figure out how we as people of faith live out our beliefs about service to others and especially to those with very little voice and power to respond to that question for myself of how do i live out my call my vocation to service it's probably best for me to stick to what i know best which is what my catholic tradition teaches about how to work for justice and with workers so i begin that part by reflecting on three of the traditional ten commandments which are foundational in both judaism and christianity of course and they are found in different forms in islam so in the first commandment god says to humans you shall have no other gods before me jesus confirmed that we are not to worship false gods including the gods of greed and self-aggrandizement at the expense of others so that's the first commandment in the fifth commandment god says you shall not murder this includes of course cooperating in any way with avoidable harm or threat to the dignity and welfare of other humans what could be more harmful to others than aligning oneself including purchasing goods with factories in bangladesh and elsewhere around the world that allow conditions resulting in thousands of deaths of workers not to speak of the daily existence of those workers in terrible working conditions and fear of harm every day and we realize that the unspeakable evil of human trafficking both for labor and for sex is a huge part of this how the commandment to not murder not harm not threaten and the the seventh commandment is you shall not steal we see much evidence of employers stealing wages and benefits from workers and their families all over the world and here in madison if we knowingly support these restaurants or manufacturers or businesses of any kind we too are stealing i think that's a heavy responsibility and it's a hard saying but jesus was known for hard sayings and the profits were known for hard sayings we might say well we don't know who is operating businesses unethically so how can we avoid supporting them i think we need to make it part of our responsibility as people of faith to learn who is producing the goods and services that we enjoy and under what conditions and then using our power as consumers to support ethical businesses and speak up about the injustices that we become aware of we do make powerful ethical and moral choices when we use our purchasing power our power as consumers to give a personal example i was privileged to travel to el salvador three times with groups of students from edward college this was years ago mainly in the nineties but since then i have determined not to purchase goods made outside the united states i look for goods preferably with a union label on them and as you all know this is very difficult to find right i don't i'm not much of a shopper at all because i don't need much stuff but when i go looking for something i can hardly find something made in the united states um and i'm sorry to say that possibly there are some sweatshop conditions in the united states but if they are union made i think it's it's usually a pretty good um indication that it's made under just um conditions so if you check my closet you would find some clothing with labels indicating that it was made outside the united states but i can say that i hardly ever purchase new clothing choosing instead to shop at st vinson d paul so you know always a fashion plate i really i really pride myself on that but reusing and recycling are my purposes in shopping at st vinson d paul reusing recycling as well as helping a very good organization one that i trust on the other hand i decided years ago never to purchase things from wal-mart or amazon because regardless of what they say in their advertising i believe they often do not treat their workers well or their consumers and they hurt smaller businesses because of their giant size and their ability to undercut prices so this is a complex issue this one choice that we make as consumers is very complex and i do not mean to place any guilt on anyone else this is my responsibility and i just want to share with you a little bit of my decision-making as i go about being a consumer and of course i do not do this perfectly but i am moving toward being more just in my own purchasing practices and finally i would like to spend a little time on the long but not well known tradition of catholic social teaching even many catholics have no idea of the hundred and thirty year tradition of catholic social teaching um which is it always makes me sad to think about that because these seven major themes are so important and they would make such a different difference in the world if we were to really live by them so um i'm not going to speak on seven but i'm going to take three that i think are very specifically related to workers and to worker justice um the first one is about the dignity of work and the rights of workers and that teaching states that the economy must serve people not the other way around that work is more than a way to make a living as your quotation on your program today says work is much more than just a way to make a living although that's very important but work is a form of continuing participation in God's creation we had a sorrow represented about that today how do we participate in God's creation therefore the dignity of work and the worker must be protected that is done by ensuring the right to productive work to decent and fair wages to the organization and joining of unions to private property and to economic initiative all of this is meant to promote the common good i think just i think just those two words the common good is essential to remember about um all of life but specifically how how our workers treated um a second theme of catholic social teaching that i'd like to briefly speak about is solidarity we are one human family whatever our differences and as the world gets more and more interconnected and interdependent we become more and more aware of the need for solidarity and how we affect each other loving our neighbor as we love ourselves has global dimensions in this shrinking world where we are all interconnected and at the core of solidarity is the pursuit of justice and peace and again the common good and finally there's the theme of the life and dignity of the human person this is the foundation for a moral vision for society the bottom line is that every person is precious made in the image of god all persons are more important than things all persons are more important than things the measure of every institution is whether it threatens or enhances the life and dignity of every human person especially the poorest and most vulnerable again the common good and we see threats to this on all sides don't we so in this catholic tradition for of almost 130 years long we have had strong statements from popes and other leaders supporting concrete ways of living out these teachings and promoting the rights of all these are far deeper than quote political rights i firmly believe they're far deeper than political rights they are moral and human rights undergirded by such powerful statements as the universal declaration of human rights promoted by the united nations just think if the us were to support the un as it deserves think of what a difference that alone could make in the world so our tradition is clear labor and workers have priority over profits and capital dignified human labor is essential because it both contributes to the ongoing development of the world and it helps transform us individuals who work into better fuller human beings so there's the global effect of just labor and there's the personal effect of just labor as we approach the climate strike and i saw your sign out front here on september 20th i know you've been hearing about that a lot and hopefully the whole world will participate in this that this is the purpose the climate strike on september 20th we know that there are many positive aspects of transforming changes that we're being called to in this one area of climate not the least of these are the dignified creative jobs which workers may take on as a result of transforming our systems on behalf of our beautiful mother earth our only planet our only home as marge pierce so eloquently says in your reading today the pitcher cries for water to carry and a person cries for work that is real and then just that little word real think about all of that means work that is real and we're going to sing in our closing song a song by caroline mcdade echoing dr king's words and these are the words that especially struck me as i uh read that those lyrics will build a land where we bring the good tidings to all and give them garlands instead of ashes where peace is born restoring ruins of generations where sisters and brothers may then create peace and where justice shall roll down like refreshing life-giving waters thank you bravo sister marine you are words and your authentic presence speak volumes in a time where we really need to remember how deeply connected we are so i remind you as we move into our time of offering that 50 percent of the offering will go to workers justice wisconsin you've heard a lot about their work and how essential especially now that attention is so as we give and receive the offering may that deep sense of interconnection in justice inspire our generosity so may it be thank you for your generous support during the offering of worker justice and speaking of workers and all they do to make things possible and smooth um we get to thank our volunteer workers for their effort to make this service run smoothly talking about david bryles who operated our sound system and smiley our lay minister thank you also to claire box and joist carry for greeting us upstairs as we arrive this morning thank you to our ushers lyseman row dick goldberg pamela mcmullan and walley brinkman it takes four ushers to deal with this unruly crowd karen rose gredler is staffing the welcome table in the commons during our hospitality hour and speaking of hospitality the coffee and hospitality are hosted by gene hills and sander plush john powell is our tour guide and hannah pinkerton is making sure that the pulpit palms have the right amount of moisture uh just a few announcements for you uh one uh our first friday film also known as dinner in a movie is going to be offered here on friday september six um a good opportunity to see a film about capitalism and the climate i don't know if that's an oxymoron or not but that's what uh we're we're going to be focusing on during that dinner and film starting at 545 this friday uh speaking of schedules i think you're all aware but i'll remind you that uh this coming weekend next week we go back to f us standard time and we have a saturday service at 430 and we have two sunday morning services one at nine and one at 11 so if you come at 10 you'll be just in time for the hospitality hour and the last announcement also concerns the calendar on september 13 and that whole weekend we are celebrating a welcome back weekend as we welcome everybody back from their summer activities and uh on friday the 13th don't get worried about this we will have food carts and an opportunity fair and all kinds of things to celebrate the return of our normal weekend schedule and welcoming everybody back from summer so end with the announcements thank you steve may we rise in all the ways that we do and join our voices together in him number 121 will build a land apt is go free where the oysters and brothers anointed but and peace lie up devastations from old restores and brothers anoint where job resound from spirits once faint and once weak will i go and peace and now as we prepare to go forth from this place on this holiday weekend may we turn to our spiritual practices ones of intention ones of deeper connection ones of interdependence remembering how important we all are to each other and to the earth itself we extinguish this chalice but not the light of that ancient and deep wisdom not the power of our commitment to changing the world now when it needs it so deeply not to the warmth of love which we live every day in our lives until we gather in this place those powers will be in our lives until we gather here again so may it be and now may you take your seat for one more gift of music as we receive the post loot