 They send me to eat in the kitchen and eat well. To the First Unitarian Society of Madison. My name is Kelly Aspreuth Jackson. I'm one of the ministers here. Today I am joined by the worship team of Linda Warren, Drew Collins, Daniel Carnes, and our special musical guest, Jennifer Yancey. This morning we are also joined by sister Maureen McDonnell, here on behalf of Worker Justice Wisconsin. The vision of FUS is growing souls, connecting with one another, and embodying our UU values in our lives, our community, and our world. If you are visiting us today, welcome. We are so glad that you decided to be with us this morning. If you would like more information about First Unitarian Society, please stop by the welcome table that's located in the Commons just through those doors. We hope you will be able to stay and join us for coffee hour immediately after the service, which is also in the Commons. For those connecting with us virtually today, we are glad that you are with us as well, and we hope that you will be able to join us for our virtual coffee hour immediately following our service. The information for joining can be found on the homepage of our website, fusmadison.org. As well as on the slide that will be seen again after the post-loop. Our announcement slides will also be shown briefly after today's service, and we encourage you to take a moment to learn about upcoming programs and activities. And on that subject, I should note that this is the last Sunday of our summer schedule, which means that next weekend, we resume worshiping three times rather than once each weekend, once on Saturday at 4.30 p.m., twice on Sunday morning, once at 9, and once at 11, and our broadcast service moves from 10 to 11 next weekend as well. Next weekend is also our annual water communion service in which everyone is invited to bring with them some water to add to our common font, either literally or metaphorically drawn from any place that you feel you belong. So we hope to see you for that next weekend, and invite you to bring water if you remember to do so. And now I invite you to join me in a moment of silence to center ourselves and bring ourselves fully into this time as we join together once again in community. We enter this meeting house of kindness and comfort. May rough-worn hands and aching backs be healed. We enter this meeting house of hope for equality. May those who labor to survive live to know justice. We enter this meeting house of love and vocation. May our bonds of solidarity be strengthened. We enter this meeting house of courage and friendship. May we proceed hand in hand toward freedom. Now friends, I invite you to rise in body and or spirit and join me in the words for the lighting of our chalice. In recognition of Labor Day, we light this flame to honor all work, including the work of our hands and our backs in gratitude for all the labors that support our world and for all those who boldly continue the work of justice, equity, and peace. Rise up, O flay. Please join us in singing together him 357, bright morning stars. It is so nice to be here with you on this Sunday morning to speak about work, workers, and the relationship of all of that to us. A big thanks to your co-ministers, Kelly, the Kelly-powered ones. I'm calling them Kelly-powered. I understand Kelly Crocker is not here today in person, but I know she's been here a long time and I've known her over the years. So I thank you for welcoming me on this Labor Day weekend to speak. I am Maureen MacDonald. I'm a Catholic Dominican sister of Cincinnati, of the Edgewood variety, I always say. That always speaks to Madison area people. I'm an alum of Edgewood College and I worked there for 21 years in campus ministry, which was the culminating experience of 30 years of working on four different campuses in campus ministry in Pennsylvania, Wyoming, and Wisconsin. My other work experience was as a middle school and high school teacher for 11 years, very early in my adult life, when I really hardly knew how to teach. But I did it and learned a lot. I come to you as a former board member and present volunteer for Worker Justice Wisconsin. We have had the practice for many years in worker justice of a practice called Labor in the Pulpit, through which we offer to speak in various faith congregations about the connection between our faith and justice for workers. So the mission of Worker Justice Wisconsin is to be a Madison based nonprofit organization that builds collective worker power, collective worker power, together with faith and labor allies. And of course we are looking to all of you and many others in the surrounding faith communities to be faith allies of workers with us. We know that we never do anything alone, do we? In our closing song today, we are going to be singing the phrase singly none over and over and I thought that is so appropriate for what we're talking about today. And I thank Reverend Kelly for all the work that obviously and thought that goes into the planning of these Sunday services. There are many references to work in today's service. So the centerpiece of Worker Justice Wisconsin is our Worker Justice Center and that is located in the labor temple on South Park Street. Many of you know where that building is I'm sure. This is where non-unionized and mostly Latinx and immigrant workers come when they face workplace injustices like wage theft, which unfortunately is a huge problem in Madison, Dane County, all over the world actually unfortunately. Wage theft, poor working conditions, loss of benefits and discrimination, often discrimination based on racism and xenophobia. This fact sheet that is available for you out in the area outside the worship space gives you a lot of information, current information about worker justice issues. So I invite you to pick one up before you leave. I'd like to share a few words about what motivates me from my faith perspective. Of course the Judeo-Christian scriptures teach us you shall not steal. And Jesus often urges us to treat others fairly and justly. Then the social teaching of the Catholic Church emphasizes what is due to all people because of the basic human dignity with which God created all of us. And of course not only the Catholic Church but many many others espouse the dignity of all humans. This includes dignified labor, good working conditions, and fair compensation. Clearly workers have priority over profit and good work is essential for the ongoing development of the world and it helps transform all of us humans into fuller, better human beings. We have a tradition in the Catholic Church of over 130 years of strong statements from church leaders promoting things like the right to form unions and to engage in collective bargaining and the benefits that go with those two things. These are far deeper than political rights. They are moral rights and human rights. As a result, I believe that if we support restaurants, manufacturers, or retailers who participate in wage theft or any injustices toward workers, we are also stealing. That's a hard thing to accept for myself but I do believe that's true. So we need to do our best to find out who fails to be just to their employees and use our purchasing power strategically to speak up about injustices that we become aware of. So our purchasing power really is a power that all of us have. We can decide consciously where we're going to spend our money. So for instance, if we put priority on buying fair trade, food, clothing, and other products, we can be fairly sure that we are supporting companies who have just business practices. I'd like to leave you with two pieces of good news that encourage all of us. First, over $111,700. $111,700 in previously old but unpaid wages have been recovered for workers in 2021 with the help of Worker Justice Wisconsin. Thank you. And we know that that money means a lot to workers and their families and that is largely due to the staff that is in the Worker Justice Wisconsin office daily to help workers who come. Often without appointments, I mean it's just walk in, state what you need, and see what kind of help can be given there. And the second is a success story that I really love. It has come about for eight courageous immigrant workers at a company in Manona, just east of Madison, of course. Evidently, the owner and boss of that company engaged in wage theft and poor working conditions like dirty bathrooms, dirty kitchen, and 90 degree heat that the workers have to work in right now. So the workers decided with great courage that they were going to create a petition to present to the boss asking for common sense improvements in their work situation. Well, he got very angry not only to the workers but to the worker justice staff when they called to ask about the situation. So he got angry and he said that he was going to put the workers on unpaid leave to retaliate for their engagement in this collective activity of a petition. The workers then came to Worker Justice Wisconsin to ask for help including they asked that we participate with them in a picket line in front of the business. And I know Reverend Kelly was a part of that picket line. As a result of that, this past Thursday an agent for the federal agency, the NLRB, the National Labor Relations Board ordered the owner to reinstate all workers and improve their working conditions as requested in the petition. Now, yeah, such a great example of what community gathering together can do to create good. Of course, hardly any of these improvements have been made yet. I mean, this really just happened a few days ago. But the workers did return to work last Friday and this has been reported in at least two newspaper articles in the Madison area. So the public now knows about this situation. And Worker Justice is continuing to work with the workers so that the owner must follow through on what the workers have said that they need. So when we ask the question, what can we do about this? I think we ordinary people sometimes feel helpless, right? But there are really many responses that we can make, including our own purchasing decisions. We have power because of our purchasing decisions. And we need to use that intentionally. A few other things that are available to us, ordinary citizens, are things like sharing the resources available from Worker Justice Wisconsin. There's a wonderful website that has a lot of resources on it and this sheet that I just mentioned to you. That can be, perhaps you want to take two or three copies of that sheet and share it with other people. A second thing that we can do is host worker trainings in faith communities. So first Unitarian could call Worker Justice Wisconsin and arrange to have worker trainings so that people know their rights, especially immigrant persons for whom English is not their first language and for whom they really need help interpreting the standards and the things that they can legitimately ask for. So worker trainings. A third thing is attending workers' actions like pickets. And a fourth thing is donating to the Worker Solidarity Fund. And it's important to designate if you decide to give a check, for instance, today and put it in the donation basket. Please designate it for the Worker Solidarity Fund. So it will go towards that. I learned just a few days ago that over $5,000 was donated to this fund last week, just last week, by a variety of people and organizations. And all except $900 of that has already been paid out to workers to assist them, especially with unpaid rent and with daily needs like food because they literally had no money and some have not been paid for a number of weeks, unfortunately. So all of this builds toward the common good in a reading that you will hear later in this service by Philip Levine. The common good is a common theme and it's a very important one for the human community, of course. So the bottom line is that economy must serve people, not the other way around. The economy is meant to serve the people. This is our goal in worker justice and I'm sure it's the goal of many of you also. We know that this can involve risking some comfort and it can involve pushback from people who may not agree with us. But small risks add up to collective actions and can lead to important social change. I'd like to repeat that last sentence. Small risks that people like us can take add up to collective actions that can lead to important social change. So I also wanted to mention and I told Reverend Kelly that this sheet will be out in case any of you wish to sign up on it to be in solidarity with the apparel workers, the eight persons whom I just told you about who are dealing with a difficult situation. So you can put your name and contact information on that sheet if you wish. So thank you so much for hosting me here and for listening so attentively today. And I ask for God's blessing as each of us lives as well as we can and does the best we can for ourselves and for the human community and for Earth. Thank you. I now invite you into the giving and receiving of today's offering. We give freely and generously to this offering which today goes to benefit worker justice Wisconsin and specifically their worker solidarity fund. As you just heard very well and much better than I could put it, WJW empowers workers to stand up for their rights and brings faith, labor and other community allies together to fight for a just and living wage for all, paid time off for all, workplaces free from all forms of discrimination and harassment, opportunities for collective organizing without fear of retaliation and a healthy work-life balance for all people, regardless of race, gender, national origin, immigration status or creed. You will see on the screen that you can donate directly from our website at fusmattison.org and you will find our text to give information there as well. In addition, there are baskets at the exits to the auditorium where cash and checks can be placed as well. We thank you for your generosity and your faith in this light that we create together with our partners who may be with our partners here and abroad. Thank you. We'll mention this earlier, but this week I had the honor of visiting some workers on a picket line who were protesting unfair and I would say just straight up unsafe conditions in their workplace in Manona as well as some issues with back pay. And it made me think about a story from the Hebrew Bible. The story comes from the Book of Genesis which is the first book in the Hebrew Bible. It's about Jacob. Jacob was the grandson of Abraham, the son of Isaac. He was, he's remembered as being one of the patriarchs of the people of Israel. In fact, in a later section of the story we won't get to today, Jacob's name gets changed to Israel. That's why they're called the people Israel. So, Jacob, he got into a legal dispute with his twin brother Esau about their father's inheritance after their father had passed away and he decided that he needed to leave, right? Sort of that situation where you get into a bad enough fight with your family that you have to leave town. Well, that's what happened to Jacob. So he went east for a while. I don't think about this very often but technically that makes him an immigrant in this part of the story just like those folks in Manona. And so he came to another place and he met a man named Laban and Laban hired him to work for him tending to his flocks of goats and sheep. Now, Jacob and Laban came to an agreement as to what he would be paid for his time. He said, I will work for you for seven years and in return I want to be allowed to marry your daughter Rachel. Now, we should absolutely interrogate the idea that a human being is an acceptable wage for work. No, that's not all right. But within the context of the story we have to understand that that was the agreement that they had made, that Jacob would work for Laban for seven years and at the end of those seven years he would be allowed to marry Rachel. Well, you see, Laban had another daughter, an older daughter named Leah and my heart always breaks for Leah in this story just over and over again. She has a real... I mean, a lot of people in this story have a real rough time of it but she has a real rough time of it because at the end of those seven years Laban seemed to do, as they had agreed he allowed Jacob to marry one of his daughters but secretly he swapped places so that Jacob ended up marrying Leah instead of Rachel. Now Laban, of course, was all ready to say, it's okay. We can still work this out. You just worked for me another seven years and you can marry Rachel too, again. This is not a good model of what a fair and equitable system for payment for labor is or ought to be. So Jacob agreed and whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa on to Leah who's just again and again reminded in this story that she's at best a second choice. But Jacob worked another seven years tending to those flocks, the sheep and the goats and Laban's wealth prospered enormously for all of Jacob's work so that at the end of the next seven years 14 years he's been working for this man now he has two wives, a family that he needs to take care of and he realizes he has no material possessions to show for it, right? Jacob's done a lot of work he's been paid according to the agreements that he made at least I mean there was some swapping around there but he doesn't have the means to support a family so he says I need to go make my own way in the world and Laban essentially says can we make another deal? Can we find a way for you to keep working for me? What do you want? Ask me for anything and Jacob says alright, okay so you have many flocks of sheep and of goats and they are all different colors I will take from you only those that are dark or speckled all the ones with plain white coats they will all stay with you but I'll take the darker the speckled ones it's implied that they are somehow less desirable again there's all kinds of things we could debate and explore about why the darker the speckled sheep and goats are less desirable than those with white hues but the point is he says I'll take these off of your hands basically and that will be my payment to work for you for another six years apparently a whole bunch of sheeps and goats not quite worth one human being alright okay I mean that's better I guess but anyway they make this agreement yet another agreement between them the bond has the time to go through all the sheep and all the goats and take all those with dark or speckled hues and take them wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy over there where Jacob won't be able to find them so that when he goes through the sheep and the goats they're all white nothing for him to have have. But, and here's where we get into a little bit of rudimentary science that you didn't know that was in Genesis, right? There's a whole extended story that I'm not going to trouble you with because I'm not totally sure that I get all the details and as far as I know it doesn't actually work. But Jacob sets up an elaborate plan involving where and when and in the presence of what the sheep and the goats are mating so that all of these white-hued perfectly plain white sheep and goats will end up having offspring that are speckled or dark. And as a result of that for years and years, the next six years that he's working for Leban, all of the kids, that's the name for a child goat, right? All the kids, all the all the cats, everything that is born to Leban is dark or speckled. And so all of those animals accrue to Jacob. So finally, finally, we reach the end of that six-year term, 20 years now, 20 years. Jacob has been working for Leban. He has two wives, several children. We didn't get to that part, but it happened. Several children and a whole mess of sheep and goats. And he says, I am done. I am not going to work for you anymore, Leban. And Leban realizes that all of his wealth is the result of Jacob's hard work and he doesn't want to let him go. And so when Jacob leaves in the middle of the night and Leban realizes that he's going to be out this great source of income, he chases after him. And they sort of do this little dance, right? Jacob pulls ahead, Leban follows behind. Eventually, Leban catches up to him and it looks like there's going to be a big confrontation. What's going to happen? He's going to try to drag him back east under force of arms. Maybe, maybe. But Jacob says to Leban, when they finally meet face to face, he says, I worked for you for 20 years. Again and again, you changed the terms under which I was to be paid. I was burned by the heat. I was frozen by the cold. I toiled for you long hours, gaining nothing for myself. Now I am my own. I will make my own way in the world. And so Leban and Jacob set up a pillar. This is what it says in the story. So they set up a pillar of stones to mark an agreement between themselves that Leban would stay on one side to the east and Jacob would stay on the other side to the west of this pillar of stones. And there was no National Labor Relations Board in those days, but it essentially is a labor contract saying that now our debts are resolved. I no longer work for you. You no longer have claim over me. I will take what is mine. You will take what is yours. And we will part ways. I understand that the stories from a very long time ago, 3,000 years or more, may not necessarily feel like they are deeply applicable to our time and our place. And again, I cannot reiterate enough, a human being is not just payment for any amount of work. But, but, in this ancient story, I find a thread that connects even all the way to our present modern period. That people who travel from one place to another, immigrants from one land to another, are often exploited by those with material means in the place where they arrive. That it is tragically common, tragically common, for employers seeking to exploit their workers to change the terms of their service arbitrarily to benefit the employer and to the detriment of the worker. And ultimately, workers taking charge of their own lives, demanding what they are owed and choosing to sever their connection with an employer when it is necessary for them to do so. That is the means by which justice is to be attained. No other way that I know. Body or spirit to join us for him, number 128. One of the great poets, the great city of Detroit. I invite you to move into the poem with me to try to occupy the space of it. Imagine yourself into a life you have not actually lived. We stand in the rain in a long line waiting at Ford Highland Park for work. You know what work is. If you're old enough to read, you know what work is, although you may not do it. Forget you. This is about waiting, shifting from one foot to another, feeling the light rain falling like mist into your hair, blurring your vision until you think you see your own brother ahead of you maybe 10 places. You rub your glasses with your fingers and, of course, it's someone else's brother narrower across the shoulders than yours, but with the same sad slouch, the grin that does not hide the stubbornness, the sad refusal to give in to rain, to the hours of wasted waiting, to the knowledge that somewhere ahead a man is waiting who will say, no, we're not hiring today for any reason he wants. You love your brother. Now suddenly you can hardly stand the love flooding you for your brother who's not beside you or behind or ahead because he's home trying to sleep off a miserable night shift at Cadillac so he can get up before noon to study his German works eight hours a night so he can sing Wagner the opera you hate most the worst music ever invented how long has it been since you told him you loved him held his wide shoulders opened your eyes wide and said those words and maybe kissed his cheek you've never done something so simple so obvious not because you're too young or too dumb not because you're jealous or even mean or incapable of crying in the presence of another man no just because you don't know what work is a place and a time where we can share the celebrations and sorrows of our days today we light a candle at the request of one of our members expressing their joyful welcome to zan hendrick molly back and christy christie spread the three newest members of our f us staff team we also light a candle of solace for those who are in morning those who are alone and lonely and those struggling with addiction both those of others and their own we light a candle in solidarity with the people of ukraine both in their suffering and in their struggles together we yearn for peace for them and for all people and for an end to all wars of conquest anywhere and everywhere on earth and finally we light one last candle for all the joys and all the sorrows that live within the sanctuaries of our hearts may they each be held gently in gratitude in love and in hope blessed be and amen longest march we will sing this hymn two times the information sheet that sister mo talked about as well as the sign-up sheet for more information and deeper connection with worker justice wisconsin all straight out that door right in front of me just across the way near the stairway up to the ground level if you're interested in any of that and now these words of benediction from martha curby capo our time together is finished but our work is not yet done may our spirits be renewed in our purpose resolved as we meet the challenges of the week to come the chalice flame is or will be extinguished until once again ignited by the strength of our communion go now in peace amen blessed be and please be at rest for the post work together children don't you get weary walk together children don't you get weary walk together children don't you get weary there's a great camp meeting in the promised land oh walk together children don't you get to gather children don't you get weary walk together children Don't gather children, don't you get weary? Shout together, children, don't you get...