 Please join in a moment centering silence so we can be fully present with each other this morning And now let's get musically present by turning to the words for our in-gathering hymn Which you'll find inside your order of service Well done everybody. Good morning and welcome to another fabulous Sunday here at First Unitarian Society Where independent thinkers gather in a safe nurturing environment 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, but shy member of this congregation and I'd like to extend a special welcome first of all to those of all those who are listening or watching at home and also to any Guests visitors or newcomers if this is your first time at First Unitarian Society I know that you'll find it's a special place And if you'd like to learn more about our special buildings we conduct guided tours after the service today and If you're interested in learning more about our buildings simply gather over here at the windows after the service and we will take care of you Speaking of taking care of each other. I think many of you know the drill Please take a moment to silence all those pesky electronic devices that might interfere with your enjoyment of the service And while you're doing that if you're accompanied by a Youngster today and that youngster is worried that you might become a little fidgety during the service and That youngster might prefer Enjoying the service from a more private location We have two options for you one is our child Haven in the back corner of the auditorium And the other is comfortable seating right outside the doorway in the commons from which you and your youngster can see and hear the service As is the case every Sunday our service is brought to us by a wonderful group of people known as volunteers with a capital V And you're gonna hear their names in a moment. Please later on show your appreciation Thank them give them a high five a handshake Invite them to your home for dinner Operating our sound system David Brails our lay minister this morning is Tom Boykoff Kyle Kern greeted us this morning as we arrived our ushers include Liza Monroe Dick Goldberg Marty Hollis and Anne Ostrom Our coffee and hospitality are hosted by Colleen Filz and Nancy Kossoff Especially thank them and our tour guide after the service is none other than John Powell That concludes the announcements except for the fact that it's about a hundred and seventy three more days until cabaret So you have about half a year to get ready for that So please sit back or lean forward to enjoy this morning's service. I know it will touch your heart Stir your spirit and trigger one or two New thoughts. We're glad you're here or opening words this morning are from the Indian poet Rabindranath to Gore Today the peace of autumn pervades the world in the radiant noon Silent and motionless the wide stillness rests like a tired bird Spreading over the deserted fields to all horizons its wings of gold and green Today the thin thread of the river flows without song leaving no mark on its sandy banks The many distant villages bask in the sun with eyes closed in idle and languid slumber And in the stillness I hear in every blade of grass in every speck of dust in every part of my own body In the visible and invisible worlds in the planets and the sun and the stars I hear the joyous dance of the atoms through endless time I Right invite you now to rise and body or in spirit for the lighting of our chalice Our opening words are responsive today. So if you will join your voices in reading the bolded sections We have gathered here in search of insights into life's riddles Let this be a place not only of searching but of discovery Let this be a place not only of meeting but of meaningful connection May we create here a circle of curiosity and love and in the spirit of that Ever-lasting ever-deepening spirit of love. Please turn and exchange a friendly greeting with your neighbor for the message for all ages We just sang was entitled now light is less Which does not seem to be the case this morning? And there are going to be some pictures that will be up on the screen And we apologize because they're going to be a little hard to see at least some of them are But you might want to try to figure out who who's on there There is the first one. That's not too good So this is a story entitled the three questions three really important questions So once there was a little boy named Nikolai who sometimes didn't know exactly how he should act I Want to be a good person. He said to his friends, but I don't always know the best way to do that Well, Nikolai's friends they understood what he was talking about and they really wanted to help him If only I could find the answer to my three questions Nikolai said then I would always know just what to do and The three questions were these What is the best time to do things? Who is the most important one? What is the right thing to do? Nikolai's friends thought about that first question. When is the best time to do things? Sonia who was a heron spoke first to know the best time to do things. She said one must first make plans One must plan ahead Gogol the monkey who had been rooting through some leaves to find something good to eat He said you'll know when to do things when you look very closely and pay attention and Pushkin the dog who was just dozing off rolled over and said you can't pay attention to everything by yourself You need to have a pack to help you watch and then you'll know when to do things Well, Nikolai thought about their answers and then he asked his second question Who is the most important one? Those who are closest to heaven said Sonia the heron as she was circling in the sky Those who know how to heal the sick said Gogol the monkey who was nursing a bump on his head where a coconut had hit him Those who make the rules are the most important said Pushkin the dog Nikolai thought some more then he asked his third question. What is the right thing to do? Flying said Sonia Having fun all the time said Gogol the monkey Fighting growled Pushkin the dog The boy wasn't satisfied He knew his friends were trying the best that they could to answer his questions But the answers just didn't seem right to him. So then an idea came to Nikolai I know he said I will go ask Leo the turtle Leo has lived for a really really long time And surely he will know the answer to my three questions So Nikolai hiked high up into the mountains where the old turtle lived all by himself And when he arrived there he saw Leo digging in his garden Now Leo was pretty old and so the digging was was really difficult for him Nikolai said Leo I have a problem and I've come for your help and he repeated his three questions to the old turtle Leo listened carefully And he just smiled and he returned to his digging Nikolai watched him for a little bit and said Leo you must be tired. Let me help you and so gratefully the turtle gave him his hoe and Nikolai began to help with the garden and Nikolai was young and he was strong So it didn't take him hardly any time at all to finish the task But then just as he is getting finished the wind began to blow and rain burst from the sky And they ran into Leo's cottage for shelter But but just as they were going in the door Nikolai heard a cry for help He turned around and he rushed down the path from where that cry had come and he found a Panda lying on the ground its leg had been injured by a falling tree And so Nikolai carefully lifted her up and carried her into Leo's cottage and put a bamboo split on that injured leg The storm raged on banging on the windows in the doors And the panda looked up at Nikolai and said But where is my child? Where's my child? Nikolai ran back down the path from the cottage and out into the woods He was being drenched with rain. He was pushing against the wind But there in the woods he found the pandas child shivering on the ground She was wet and she was cold, but she was still alive So Nikolai carried the poor little panda into the cottage and placed her in her mother's arm Leo smiled when he saw what the boy had done And then the next morning the mother thanked Nikolai before the two of them left And then at that moment his three friends Sanya, Gogol and Pushkin They arrived to make sure that everyone was safe from that ferocious storm Nikolai felt this great sense of peace within him because he knew he had these wonderful friends and that he had He had helped to save the panda and her child. So he felt good about that But he was also disappointed because no one had answered his three questions yet So he asked Leo the turtle one more time the three questions Leo looked at the boy and said Nikolai your questions have already been answered They have said Nikolai Well, of course said Leo. Just think about it Yesterday if you had not stopped to help me dig in my garden if you'd just gone away You would not have heard the pandas cries for help in that storm Therefore the most important time was the time that you spent digging in my garden and the most important one at the At that time was me Leo the turtle and the most important thing for you to do was to help me with my digging And then later when you found that injured panda the most important time was the time that you spent saving her and mending her leg The most important ones were the panda and her child and the most important thing to do was to take care of them and keep them safe So here's the thing Nikolai remember. There's only one important time And that time is right now The most important one is the one that you are with right now And the most important thing to do is to do good to the people who are standing right by your side And these my boy are the answers to what is most important in life, and this is why we are all here So that's the story of the three-quest day right here for a few minutes while we listen to another song from our children's choirs Thank you all And now as our kids depart for their classes Linda will play a little bit of traveling music music for the journey The first of our two readings this morning comes from a short essay by the great physicist Albert Einstein Entitled the world as I see it the fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious This is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of all true art and all true science He who knows it not and who could no longer wonder No longer feel amazement is as good as dead a snuffed out candle It was the experience of mystery even if mixed with fear that engendered religion a Knowledge of the existence of something that we cannot penetrate of the manifestations of a profound Reason and the most radiant beauty which are only accessible to our reason in their most elementary forms It is this knowledge. It is this emotion that constitutes the truly religious attitude And in this sense and in this sense alone. I am a deeply religious man. I Cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures or has a will of the type of which we are conscious in ourselves And an individual who should survive his physical death That's also beyond my comprehension nor do I wish it otherwise Such notions are for the fears and the absurd egoism of feeble souls So enough for me the mystery of the eternity of life and the inkling of the marvelous structure of reality Together with the single-hearted endeavor to comprehend a portion be it ever so tiny of the reason that manifests itself in nature and the second reading passage from the book of Ecclesiasticus not to be confused with the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes Ecclesiastes is a book that's found in all of our scriptures of whatever Denomination or sect Ecclesiasticus is a book that is only found in the Roman Catholic canon of Scripture The word Ecclesiasticus from the Latin basically means the book of the church It's also known as the book of Ben Sirach My son if thou wilt thou shalt be taught and If thou wilt apply thy mind I shall be prudent If thou love to hear Thou shalt receive Understanding and if thou bow thy ear thou shalt become wise Stand in the assembly of the elders and cleave unto him who is wise Be willing to listen to every godly discourse and let not the parables of understanding escape thee And if thou seeest a man of understanding get thee betimes unto him let thy foot wear the steps of his door But accept no man against thine own soul and let no reverence for any man Cause thee to fall Let the council of thine own heart stand for there is no man more faithful to thee than it For a man's mind is sometimes want to tell him more than seven watchmen that sit high above in the lofty tower Now I would invite you to rise once more in body or in spirit as we sing him number 293 If you read our newsletter you would have learned that I am not a birthright unitarian universalist My earliest experience of church was with the modest disciples of Christ congregation To which my paternal grandmother and great-grandmother belonged And I found the disciples to be a warm and welcoming people Communion in that church was served every week and no one not even doubters and disbelievers were excluded I don't recall any mention of fire and brimstone and the prevailing message seemed to be What a friend we have in Jesus All in all the first Christian church was not a bad place to hang out for a couple of hours each week But ultimately it was just too conventionally Churchy for my father and so we began to attend a small lay led unitarian fellowship that had Recently taken up residence in a country chapel not that far from our family farm It was as I said in my newsletter column a place where questions were welcomed and Rational explanations readily provided Now William L. R. E Channing early 19th century Unitarianism's most prestigious minister in theologian Channing once wrote that the multitude do actually receive religion on authority on the word of others But a faith so received seems to me to be a very little worth The precious the living the effectual part of a poor man's faith is that of which he sees The reasonableness the excellence that which approves itself to his intelligence to his conscience and to his heart Those parts of his belief which he takes on blind trust Those will do him little if any good Now in one report in respect William L. R. E Channing differed from those who frequented our small unitarian fellowship because Channing was a hundred and seventy years ago a convicted Christian who trusted that the Bible was divinely revealed But Channing was also convinced that we human beings possessed God-given Reason which must be used to resolve scriptures inconsistencies and to shed light on its varying claims It is each person's responsibility Thoughtfully to examine the text and to reach his or her conclusions as to its personal meaning By contrast the good Unitarians of my own early experience pretty much dispensed with the Bible entirely I cannot recall ever hearing it cited except to point out its absurdity and the many ways in which its assertions were antithetical to reason The adults that I knew were for the most part died in the wool no nonsense Humanists who insisted in the immortal words of dragnet's sergeant Joe Friday Give me the facts ma'am only the facts Now fortunately Unitarian Universalism has in recent times Adopted a more moderate position with respect to sacred scriptures including the Bible We are now able as I just did a moment ago to quote approvingly those passages which contain inspiration and wisdom for living without inferring Divine authorship or according to the good book ultimate authority That being said like our forebears we you you still do place great emphasis on the powers of human reason We certainly do not agree with nor do we subscribe to the view expressed in another biblical book the book of Proverbs Whose author admonishes us to trust in the Lord with all of your heart and do not rely Do not rely on your own insight and The great Protestant reformer Martin Luther's equally dismissive appraisal it also strikes us is utterly inappropriate Luther said reason is the greatest enemy that faith has it never comes to the aid of spiritual things But more frequently than not struggles against the divine word treating with contempt all that emanates from God And so whoever wants to be a Christian Luther warned should tear out the eyes of his reason The fourth of our seven Unitarian Universalist principles stands in stark contrast to this point of view As followers of a progressive faith we are invited in that principle To join in a free and responsible search for truth and meaning free That implies unfettered by creeds dogmas ideologies and authoritative prescriptions search That means that the truth is not all in That there's always more for us to learn and that revelation whatever its source is continuous Responsible suggests that we must each apply ourselves to the task of examining and testing the truth claims of all sacred scriptures of preachers of teachers and of pundits Now the fifth source From what we you use derive inspiration adds greater specificity to that fourth principle In keeping with humanist teachings it says we should rely on reason and the scientific method lest we succumb To the idolatries of the mind and the spirit Now it certainly could be argued that if anything our world today suffers from a dearth of reason At a time when many influential opinion leaders are maintaining positions completely at odds with scientific findings in common sense One begins to wonder whether we as a society have begun to slip back into pre adolescent habits of magical thinking 97% of the scientific community agrees that anthropogenic climate change is real and that it is a growing problem There is a virtual consensus among experts in the life sciences that the broad outlines of evolutionary theory are valid The vast majority of social scientists are convinced that systematic racial bias has contributed significantly to america's achievement gap Policy makers in other countries have reasonably concluded that easy access to high caliber pistols and assault weapons This makes mass killings all that more likely And yet for all of that Substantial numbers of americans remain unconvinced on these four points. They appear to have Abandoned the rationalism that is in the words of charles watz The faculty of judgment which discriminates infers deduces enabling us to premise future possibilities from past experience And to distinguish truth from error Now the word reason has on occasion been used to describe something other than what watz just outlined A superior human faculty something that is higher than the merely rational albert einstein referred to this in the reading i shared earlier and ralf wallow emerson and his transcendentalist colleagues Contrasted this capital r reason with that lesser mental attribute that they called Understanding Understanding employs an empirical methodology. It utilizes hard data and systematic analysis to reach its conclusions emerson's reason with the capital r was more akin to intuition Because the sage of concord Was ultimately interested in absolute Rather than tentative and provisional truths that are the stock and trade of understanding and of science and its related disciplines But today emerson's take on reason Really only serves to muddy the waters because it bears little resemblance to the word as we Define it in our everyday parlance Near synonyms would include thoughtful sagacious discerning discriminating sensible astute erudite logical rational The enlightenment thinker of ulterre extolled reason as the best weapon we have for fending off the trials of life and dealing with its problems It partakes of common sense. He said and seeks results that are useful and pragmatic And that is precisely the sense in which I would use it today But if rationalism and reason thought is so important so demonstrably effective Why is it not more consistently practiced and its findings more widely accepted? a couple of reasons One has to do with this whole concept of provisionality Particularly provisionality as we find it in scientific thought Provisionality refers to the state of knowledge at any given time The state of knowledge at any given time And some people find that whole idea rather distressing Now opinion polls reveal widespread and deep support for science education in our schools and generally speaking science is seen As a positive force in our society, but at the same time The methodology of science is poorly understood by the general public Many folks seem to expect science to reach conclusions That are the equivalent of divine revelations The last word on the subject And when those expectations are not met people become cynical Disillusion science not giving me what it's supposed to be giving me and ignoring probabilities. They conclude then that any one theory Creationism for instance is just as good as any other And a second and related reason for eschewing the dictates of reason has to do with the manner that our brains Index and categorize information According to the social psychologist roger shank and robert abelson reasoning Is not a straightforward process Rather it is conditioned by the stories That we tell ourselves Stories and storytelling are fundamental to human knowledge these scholars say and if a set of facts If a rational proposition does not align with our stories if we could not fit it neatly into those story lines The facts will bounce off. They will not seem to us to be credible And so in his brilliant in his book brilliant blunders Mario livio shows how even some of the towering figures of science Like charles darwin and linus pauling and albert einstein these Geniuses made tremendous mistakes in reasoning Because as livio says they were held captive by their entrenched intuitions and they refused to accept new ideas until they were faced with Absolutely overwhelming evidence in short these scientists were saying to themselves. That's my story and i'm sticking with it And in their insightful book animal spirits economist george ackerloaf and robert schiller discussed the role that stories play In determining economic behavior The economy does well they say when public confidence is high And confidence builds with the circulation of inspirational stories Stories of successful startups People getting rich off their investments And within the marketplace. They say these stories spread like viruses And they can be as contagious as any disease Markets become overheated Or they become severely depressed not because the players are making all of these carefully calculated decisions But because of the stories and a change in the contagion rate of certain modes of thinking The average person then is probably not as consistently rational as he or she imagines And then when we consider the role that our emotions play in the process Then it becomes even more complicated I suspect we have all been in situations where distress or excitement or panic swept in took possession and our minds locked As daniel golman points out in order to think clearly We need to have a handle on our emotions According to golman studies have shown that the kind of intelligence associated with iq Our linguistic and logical mathematical problem solving capacity iq accounts for only 20 of the factors that determine success in life Other variables include race social class Being in the right place at the right time dumb luck in other words And the ability to manage our feelings The latter is critical golman says emotional intelligence matters immensely for our personal destiny and it includes the ability to motivate oneself to persist in the face of frustration To control impulse to delay gratification to regulate one's moods to empathize with others and to maintain a sense of hopefulness In short emotional intelligence is the ability as kelly crocker said last week to listen with the heart as well as with the head And so the point is we cannot always be strictly rational even if we want to be even if we aspire to be creatures of reason And this is not only inevitable inevitable, but it may at times be a very good thing So for instance in her book transformative experience the philosopher la paul Disputes the notion that we can make these big decisions in life Decisions like whether or not to have a child or whether or not to enter a particular vocation We cannot make those kind of decisions on the basis of reason alone Because it's almost impossible. She says for us to extrapolate What life is going to be like as a parent or as a unitarian universalist minister for that matter You shouldn't fool yourself paul says you have no idea what you are getting into So don't weary yourself trying to figure it all out the best way to approach a big life decision Is not necessarily by thinking it through But by moving courageously into the unknown open to new experiences and eager to discover Just who it is we will become And for those of us who value reason so highly We need to be cognizant of reasons limits As well as some of its pitfalls Because something appears to be reasonable does not necessarily make it the right thing to do For instance, our educational system has become increasingly reliant on MOOCs MOOC massive online open courses Which may make sense from a practical and an economic standpoint But how much Intangible benefit is lost when the physical link between teachers and students Is broken What does this do to the educational experience? We're just beginnings now to find that out And then what about cost benefit analysis Whose aim is to rationalize the choices that institutions make solely on the basis of monetary value And thus the notion that an old growth forest Or an historical building or an orphan drug might possess intrinsic value Therefore merits some extra consideration according to cost benefit analysis. That's mere nonsense Too often as the philosopher Robert Solomon complains in our market driven society The real test of rationality has become the maximization of one's own interest the ability to get what one wants Now Unitarian Universalism as I mentioned earlier has historically regarded reason as the primary tool For ethical and spiritual investigation There have been times when we seem to have thought it was the only tool we needed to have in our toolbox Now we seem to recognize these days that it is but one of several means that we may use to gain insight and to grow in wisdom And so The first of our six sources References what einstein talked about direct experience of that transcending mystery That kind of mystical feeling that he extolled The sixth source it cites wisdom from the earth-centered traditions Which as david abrams writes Requires of us a rejuvenation of our carnal Sensorial empathy with the living world that sustains us And finally the words and deeds of prophets and reformers are commended to us in the second source History-making figures who buck the odds out of a sense of moral necessity. These were not reasonable men and women For as George Bernard Shaw once wrote the reasonable individual adapts himself to the world The unreasonable one the prophet persists in trying to adapt the world to himself Therefore all progress depends on unreasonable men History and increasingly science do confirm That important as it may be reason is but one of several human faculties that contribute to a well-tempered and a fulfilling life and left to itself National discursive thought may well inhibit other equally important human powers The powers of empathy and imagination The ancients as daniel goleman writes gave every aspect of human nature its due And so should we Blessed be And our offeratory today will be shared with fair share csa coalition Their work is described in your program And they also have a table outside in the commons that you might want to visit during the fellowship hour. Please be generous We gather each week as a community of memory and of hope and to this time and place We bring our whole and occasionally our broken cells We carry with us the joys and sorrows of the recent past Seeking here a place where they might be received and celebrated and shared We take a moment now to Extend best wishes to patricia leonardy who recently underwent a stem cell transplant She is out of the intensive care unit and yesterday was able to be rolled outside to enjoy the sunshine She is still in isolation and can receive no visitors But our thoughts are with her and with her partner linda mackafee And then tressa stable writes a joy Teresa and jeff joyously announced the marriage of their son ansol who uh grew up in our church school To hillary boys this past august the bride and groom mountain biked through their ceremony And the bride got a lot of use out of her dress when it got caught in the gears Some of the fabric became a veil which she lacked a train and some a bandana for her groom Congratulations to ansol and to the whole family And for all of those joys and sorrows that remain unspoken today We hold those with equal concern Or joy in our hearts let us join together now for just a moment of silence and the spirit of empathy and hope And so may our coming together for this brief time may it serve to lighten our burdens and to expand our joys Please join me now in singing our closing hymn number 186 words by confucius We close with the words of ralph waldo emerson Within us is the soul of the whole the wise silence the universal beauty to which every part and particle is equally related The eternal one and when it breaks through our intellect, it is genius When it breathes through our will it is virtue and when it flows through our affections It is love Blessed be please be seated for the post