 Good morning, and welcome to the First Unitarian Society of Madison. This is a community where curious seekers gather to explore spiritual, ethical, and social issues in an accepting and nurturing environment. Unitarian Universalism supports the freedom of conscience of each individual as together we seek to be a force for good in the world. My name is Teresa Kaufman, I'm a member of the congregation, and on behalf of the congregation I would like to extend a special welcome to visitors. We are a welcoming congregation, so whoever you are and wherever you are in your life's journey, we celebrate your presence among us. We gather today out of the routines of our week to give pause, to take a deep breath, to listen to our hearts. We give thanks for this extraordinary blessing. Here may our minds stretch, our hearts open, our spirits deepen. Here may we be stirred by love's infinite possibilities. We are so very glad you are here. I invite you to join me now in a few moments for silence, for contemplation, meditation, prayer, as we settle in and come fully into this time and place together. Please stand in body or spirit for hymn number 128. Thanks to the challenge of reason, open our hearts to the healing of love, open our lives to the calling of conscience, open our souls to the comfort of joy. Astonished by the miracle of life, grateful for the gift of companionship, confident in the power of living faith, we are here gathered. Come let us worship together. I invite you to rise for the lighting of our chalice and join me in our unison words of affirmation by the Dr. Albert Schweitzer. At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has caused to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us. I invite you to greet your neighbors, friendly greetings for your neighbors and welcome this morning. If anyone would like to come forward for our story, do you want to come on up? Thanks. Otherwise, I'd be up here all alone. First time ever. Hmm. What? I know. You know what? It's a holiday weekend, isn't it? It's a long weekend. A lot of people go out of town. Do you start school on Tuesday? You ready? I don't think I'm ready. You did? You're having school on Tuesday? Are you excited? Yeah. Oh my goodness. It was sort of scary that first week. Oh, that is scary when you go somewhere and you know almost no one. Yeah. Well, I'm sure you're going to make a lot of new friends this year and in order to do that you need to be brave, right? Our story today is called Brave Girl and Monday is Labor Day. And so I thought that this was a great story for Labor Day weekend. A steamship pulls into the harbor carrying hundreds of immigrants and a surprise for New York City. Now this takes place over a hundred years ago. That's important to remember. This an immigrant is someone who's coming here from another country. The surprise is poor, five feet tall and hardly speaks a word of English. Her name is Clara Lemlich. This girl's got grit and she's going to prove it. Look out, New York, here she comes. Clara knows in her bones what is right and what is wrong. Begins a few weeks after the Lemlichs move into their tenement in America. No one will hire Clara's father. They will, however, hire Clara. That's right, Clara. Companies are hiring thousands of girls to make blouses, coats, nightgowns and other women's clothing. They earn only a few dollars a month, but it helps pay for food and rent. So instead of carrying books to school, many girls carry sewing machines to work. Clara becomes a garment worker. From dawn to dusk, she's in a factory. Do you see all of them sitting at their sewing machines? Rows and rows of young women bending over their tables, stitching up collars, sleeves and cuffs as fast as they can. Red-a-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta goes Clara's machine. The sunless room is stuffy. And for 300 girls, there are two bathrooms, one sink and three towels to share. That's a lot of girls for two bodies. Clara learns the rules. If you're a few minutes late, you lose half a day's pay. If you prick your finger and bleed on the cloth, you're fined. The doors are locked and you're inspected every night before you leave to be sure you haven't taken anything from the factory. But Clara is uncrushable. She wants to learn to read. And at the end of her shift, though her eyes hurt from straining in the dim light and her back hurts from hunching over her machine, she walks to the library. She fills her empty stomach with a single glass of milk and goes to school at night. When she gets home in the late evening, she sleeps only a few hours before she gets up again. As the weeks grind by, Clara makes friends with the other factory girls. At lunch, they share stories and secrets as if they were in school where they belong. Clara smolders with anger, not just for herself, but for all of the girls working like that. This was not the America she imagined. Men at the factory tell her they've been trying to get the workers to team up in a union. Then they could go on a strike. Do you know what a strike means? They would refuse to work until the bosses treat them better. But the men don't think the women are tough enough to do it. Not tough enough. Oh yes they are. Clara knows it and she'll show them. From then on at the sewing tables and on the street corners, Clara urges the girls to fight for their rights. When the seamstresses are overworked, she says, strike. When they are underpaid, she says, strike. When they are punished for speaking up, she cries, strike. And they do. See him on the picket line? Each time Clara leads a walk out, the bosses fire her. The police arrest her 17 times. That's a lot of times. But a few days after, she is on the picket line again. And the other girls think if she can do it, we can do it too. For weeks, the small strikes go on, but the bosses find other young women to do the work for the same low pay and the long hours. We've got to do something bigger, thinks Clara. Something huge. A giant strike where every single garment factory, no one is working. So the union holds a meeting. Look at all those people packed into the auditorium. It's full, right? The hall thrums with excitement and Clara listens to speech after speech. The speakers want everyone to be careful. And after two hours, no one recommends a general strike. Finally, the most powerful union leader in the country goes up to the podium and not even he proposes action. So Clara does. That's right. Clara calls out from the front of the hall. The crowd lifts her to the stage where she shouts, I have no further patience for talk. I move that we go on a general strike. And she starts the largest walkout of women workers in U.S. history. The next morning, New York City is stunned by the sight of thousands of young women streaming from the factories. One newspaper calls it an army. Others call it a revolt. It's a revolt of girls. For some of them are only 12 years old. And the rest are barely out of their teens. In the coming weeks, Clara's called a hero. She lights up chilly union halls with fiery pep talks. Her singing lifts the spirits of the picketers. When a group of thugs approaches, she yells, Stand fast, girls. And they do all winter long in the bitter cold, in their thin coats, tired and hungry and scared. The girls walk alongside the men on the icy sidewalks of the picket line. They spill out of the union halls, blocking the roads, filling street corners in public squares. Newspapers write stories about them. College girls raise money for them. Rich women covered in fur coats picket with the factory girls. By the time the strike is over, hundreds of bosses agree to let their staff form unions. They shorten the work week and they raise the salaries, which means they give them more money. The strike emboldens thousands of women to walk out of garment factories in Philadelphia and Chicago too. And the strike convinces Clara to keep fighting for the rights of workers. Her throat is hoarse, her feet are sore, but she has helped thousands of people, proving that in America, wrongs can be righted. Warriors can wear skirts and blouses, and the bravest hearts may beat in those who are only five feet tall. Thank you so much for listening to that story about Clara. We're going to rise and body your spirit to sing you out to summer fun. First reading today is Wisdom from the Ancients, the book of Amos. I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. And the offerings of well-being of your fat and animals, I will not look upon. Take away from me the noise of your songs. I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Our second reading this morning is from the book Reclaiming Prophetic Witness by liberal theologian Paul Razor. Those of you that may have been at regional assembly a couple of years ago perhaps heard Mr. Razor speak. He writes, Most of the counter-prophetic tendencies in religious liberalism can be linked to its largely positive orientation towards modern culture. This perspective does more than encourage liberals to interpret religious texts in light of historical scholarship and keep their theologies consistent with modern science. It also encourages them to become actively engaged in the world, to embrace the world, not withdraw from it, to live fully in the world while bringing their religious values to bear on it. Liberal theologian Peter Hodgson argues that this engagement is essential if liberals are to fulfill their vision of a just society without actual engagement in the messy realities of the world, cultural transformation is not a possibility. But prophetic practice requires both cultural engagement and theological distance. It must be grounded in religious values, independent of cultural norms so that clear reference points for forming judgments. At the same time, its theological reference points cannot be so foreign that its critique becomes incomprehensible. The prophet thus lives in this tension between participation and independence, standing both inside and outside society. The biblical prophets did not have to deal with such tensions. One of their most important roles was to help preserve the proper covenantal relationship between God and the people. The prophets were understood as speaking directly for God and they stood beyond the authority of political leaders. Their critiques were grounded in the values of the covenant by which all social, political, and religious aspects of early Israel's communal life was ordered. When Amos condemns the leaders and merchants of Israel as you hit that trample on the needy and bring ruin to the poor of the land, there is no doubt whose message he is delivering and whose norms they are being judged by. Good morning. It's a pleasure to be back in the pulpit here It seems like I'm the designated hitter for Labor Day weekend. This is the second year in a row that I've done it, which is fine. On August 28th, 2018, we celebrated the 55th anniversary of Martin Luther King's March on Washington for Jobs and Freedoms. As is often the case when we remember Dr. King in the March on Washington, much of the focus is on the I Have a Dream portion of his speech at the Lincoln Memorial. But as we now know, this was an add-on by Dr. King that was not part of the original text. Rather, it was added at the urging of Mahalia Jackson as Dr. King was finishing his prepared remarks. It was based on a passage that he had used some months earlier during a speech in Detroit. But earlier in the speech, King had offered this insight. He said, We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and the Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. Familiar words from this morning? The ancient Hebrew prophet Amos was a native of the southern kingdom of Judah and went to the northern kingdom of Israel in approximately 783-742 BCE to proclaim the word of God. Now, this was a period of relative peace and prosperity in both Israel and Judah because the major powers of the time, Egypt and Assyria were at peace and not looking for smaller companies to gobble up into their orbit. However, the prosperity was not equitably apportioned as the biblical commentator put it. There was prosperity at least for a few, but according to Amos, at the expense of the many. Sound familiar? Speaking what he described as the word of the Lord, Amos prophesied that judgment would be brought down on the people of Israel and Judah from an outside source, the empire of Assyria, as punishment for their mistreatment of the poor and needy. Elsewhere in his preaching, Amos juxtaposes justice and righteousness in tandem. According to the HarperCollins study Bible notes, justice is the establishment of the right through fair legal procedures in accordance with the will of the Lord. Righteousness is that quality of life in relationship with others in the community that gives right to justice. Amos challenged the existing economic and political power structures of his day, arguing that their treatment of the poor and powerless was an affront to God. Their solemn assemblies and their burnt offerings were not pleasing to God in light of their treatment of the ordinary people. Other Hebrew prophets including Micah and Isaiah delivered the same message to the rulers of Israel and Judah, your oppression of the poor will bring down the judgment of God upon you. And in fact this happened. Assyria conquered Israel, the so-called lost 10 tribes, and marched them into captivity, Judah would suffer the same calamities 200 years later at the hands of the Babylonians. The work of the Hebrew prophets was not to predict the future or as Christians would have you believe foresee the coming of Jesus. Rather their calling was to reflect the judgment of God upon the rich and powerful classes because of their treatment of the poor and powerless. In so doing they spoke the name of the God in the name of God to the Hebrew people. The preaching of Jesus of Nazareth was in the same vein. In Matthew 25 Jesus describes how the Son of Man will separate those who will sit at his right hand and those who will be cast into darkness. Those who receive the favored treatment will be those who cared for the least of these, our brothers and sisters. Those who would not would suffer eternal punishment. Similarly in the story of the rich young ruler in Matthew 19 Jesus tells a rich young man that to inherit eternal life he must give away all that he has to the poor and then follow Jesus. This was too much for the rich young man who went away sourly because quote, he had many riches. For many Jews and Christians these passages from the Hebrew and Christian Bibles form the basis for their social justice of ethic and work. Jim Wallace an evangelical minister and social justice activist describes the interplay between his faith and his ethics. Let me be blunt Wallace says the behavior of Enron and other guilty corporate executives is a direct violation of biblical ethics. The teachings of both Christian and Jewish faith excoriate the greed selfishness and cheating that have been revealed and condemned in the harshest terms their callous and cruel mistreatment of employees. Read your Bible. Christianity and Judaism have a strong social justice bent grounded in their understanding of the Bible. And many Christians and Jews such as Dorothy Day, Jim Wallace and Michael Lerner articulate their ethic of social justice explicitly, explicitly in terms of their religious faith. So where does that leave religious liberals in general and unitarian universalists in particular? How can we ground our acts of justice in our faith? Well for those who identify as liberal Christians, Jews, etc. who including unitarian universalists who espouse those views, they read the same Bible as their conservative and fundamentalist counterparts but reach much different conclusions. But what are those unitarian universalists including the humanists for whom the Bible is not the sole source of their religious inspiration? How can they articulate a religious grounding for their social justice work? Paul Razer the liberal theologian and unitarian universalist addressed this question in his book Reclaiming Prophetic Witness. The first problem that Razer identifies is that religious liberals are uncomfortable with religious language. Because of our origins in the Enlightenment and our reverence for the scientific method, we are much more comfortable framing our arguments for social justice in the language of social and natural science. We are not comfortable, however, with asserting a religious sanction for our positions. In fact, as strong believers in the separation of church and state, we even doubt the legitimacy of religiously based social action. Now, this is somewhat ironic given the fact that most of us revere the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi. For both of these men and for many others, their religious faith was the basic driving force for their activism. Dr. King's writing and speaking are full of religious and biblical illusions. While he was seeking political, economic, and social justice, he often spoke of it in religious terms. He could not or would not separate the two. Razer suggests that one problem that religious liberals have is that they often cannot separate their political and social views from their religious conviction. And this makes it hard for them to argue that they are proceeding from a religious perspective. A basic concept of liberal theology is that we should look at the world in light of contemporary knowledge and experience, as opposed to what is written in ancient and sacred texts. It is easy to sound religious when you quote the Bible or the Quran or other holy book. It is more difficult when you are looking to contemporary knowledge in fields like social science and economics for inspiration. Razer suggests that a way to address this dilemma is to be explicit about identifying the religious and moral dimensions of the positions we take. For example, in the immigration debate, while it is possible to identify economic and legal justifications to promote the fair treatment of immigrants, the liberal religious value of the inherent worth and dignity of all persons is one of our central religious values which should be raised up in the policy debates. And we should not be afraid to espouse these as religious values. A few years ago, I had the experience of being part of a small group of chaplain residents in La Crosse. We each came from different religious traditions, including Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed Protestant, Seventh Day Adventist and myself, the Humanist, Unitarian, Universalist. We had come together in a setting where we were encouraged to share our beliefs and religious outlooks. Now initially, as a humanist, I felt defensive and sometimes afraid to openly express my views. But as time went on, we all began to learn that we were not that far apart in our fundamental outlooks and it was more of a question of how we articulated our beliefs. We all agreed on the importance of recognizing the inherent worth and dignity of all persons. My Christian friends would state that this dignity arises from the fact that we are created in the image of God and are the children of God. I would frame it simply by reason of being human, we are entitled to be treated with dignity and respect. But whatever route we took, we were reaching the same destination. Similarly, the more I talked about the interconnected web, the more my colleagues found comfort and meaning in that metaphor. Now my personal outlook is of a humanist variety. For those Unitarian Universalists who find their spiritual succor in Earth-centered traditions or Buddhist or other non-Western religious practices, it is equally possible to ground your social justice work in these religious expressions. Unitarian Universalist Christians or those from a Jewish background can relate to biblical teachings to inform their social justice praxis. Razor's basic point is that the particular form of religious expression is not the important thing. What is important is that the expression of the religious element be explicit. Razor also argues that notwithstanding the particular form of its expression, religious liberals outlook has certain common elements. Thus liberal Christians or Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, pagans and humanists share many of the same outlooks. These include the fundamental unity and interdependency of all existence similar to our seventh principle of the interconnected web. Transforming power of love creating relationships of compassion, respect and mutuality, inherent worth and dignity. Human freedom where each person is free to strive for a fulfilling and meaningful life. The rejection of moral dualism we reject all absolute categories of good and evil. The effort of social justice to create just communities that recognize human rights for all. The power that we can achieve when we work together the freedom of conscience every exercise of religion and theological openness accepting the notion that religious ideals are evolving and that no one set of ideas has a monopoly on truth. For Razor these concepts form the framework of a liberal religious outlook. The actual theology that one places within this framework is really not important to him. Rather this basic frame will provide a common bond among religious liberals of various kinds and allows them to work in the greater world. Also these are concepts that will allow religious liberals to collaborate with their more conservative or orthodox counterparts in the faith traditions to promote justice in the world. So what does this mean in practice? If we look at the history of Unitarian issues issued the edict of Torta guarantee both the Unitarians and the Universalists argued for openness and religious expression. Unitarians and Universalists were active in the movement to abolish slavery and to secure the right to vote for African-Americans and women. In the 50s and 60s Unitarians and Universalists were active in the modern civil rights movement with the Reverend James Reeb and Viola Liusu being martyred in the cause. In more recent years Unitarian Universalists have been in the forefront to promote including the right to marry and to advocate for fair and humane treatment of all immigrants notwithstanding their status as documented or undocumented. Too often in recent decades religious voices on public policies are identified as those from the right. While progressive values are asserting that bushel and to throw it away the times come for progressive values to be seen as religious values grounded in our liberal faith. It is time for us to take risks to promote justice in our communities. Earlier I mentioned that Unitarians were deeply involved in the movement for the abolition of slavery. One of the leading Unitarian ministers of the early 19th century was the Reverend Theodore Parker. Parker's church was a stop on the Underground Railroad and Parker was reputed to have kept Valver in his desk drawer to use to protect the fleeing slaves seeking refuge with him. More radical than some abolitionists Parker was an informal advisor and fundraiser for John Brown in his attempt to incite a slavery revolt with an attack on Harper's Ferry before the Civil War. Now whether or not we might approve of all of the methods Parker supported we must admire his commitment to the cause of freedom and justice. In more recent time Unitarian ministers marched with Dr. King and Selma in a confrontation that ultimately claimed the life of one of those ministers James Reeb. A couple of years ago UUA President Peter Morales and other Unitarian Universalists were arrested and jailed in Phoenix for their participation in direct actions against the anti-immigrant policies in the state of Arizona and in particular the actions of Maricopa Sheriff and now defeated Senate candidate Joe Arpaio. So as we be in our church here one of the questions I would like to ask is how we can find practical ways to make the prophetic voice of Unitarian universalism heard in our state and community. In these reflections I have attempted to suggest a theological basis for a liberal message of social justice. According to Paul Reiser that he calls for such theological clarity as being critical it affects both our understanding of ourselves as religious liberals and our understanding the effects how that understanding affects the prophetic message we bring to the world. Reiser concludes we know the challenges we face a world of wash and militarism and violence a debilitating global economic crisis a dehumanizing poverty and suffering and all continents. Threatening environmental disasters persistent xenophobia and racism. Yet we also know there is a better way as religious liberals we know that we are united in a single interdependent world that human beings have the ability to create good as well as evil that our diversity is something to celebrate rather than fear just in liberating human communities. This is the message of healing and hope our prophetic social justice practice brings to the world. And so we leave this sacred place in this community we create let us go into the wider world to build the promised land that can be and now I invite you to join us for the morning offering which will be shared with the worker justice Wisconsin formerly the interfaith coalition for workers justice and the workers rights center. These people are doing the good work so please support them. Appreciate the many gifts of those who helped our service this morning our greeter greeter was Claire Box our sound operator this morning is David Briles thank you David our hospitality is being provided by Lois Evison Helen McEvna and Blaise Thompson our ushers were Brian Chanis Pamela McMullen and Tom Dalmage John Powell is our tour guide you hear this morning John? I don't see John Are there any other tour guides here? You will come in. Okay so please anybody that's interested in a tour of our historic meeting house in this sustainable addition meet over by the windows and you'll get a guided tour. We join together each week as a community who gathers with joys and sorrows written on our hearts in this place we love and our love we give and receive and return we come together to find strength and common purpose turning our minds and hearts towards one another seeking to bring in our circle of concern those who need our love and support. We have a couple of memories for this Sunday Anne Smiley sent sorrow and concern on the death of Senator John McCain a moderating voice of reason conscious of us all better soul searching across party lines to bridge the divides to mend and blend with hope and sorrow for Bruce Howdle mineral mineral point sculpture who died unexpectedly last week and for his wife and son and we ask that you for a moment take into your hearts those and other joys and sorrows that you may carry with you but have not given yet given voice and now I invite you to rise and body your spirit join us in seeing our closing item number 118 this little light of mind I invite you to go forward from this place remembering not only are we for social justice but for us it is a religious imperative a religious calling so I ask you to go out we've finished our service of worship in this space let us go down into the world to continue our service to the community go in peace go in blessing please be seated for the post lead