Sunday Service: Modern Judaism - June 14th, 2015

Modern Judaism

By Reverend Tom Capo

06/14/2015

From the Babylonian Talmud, comes these words:  

 “In the hour when an individual is brought before the heavenly court for judgment, the person is asked:  Did you conduct your [business] affairs honestly?  Did you set aside regular time for Torah study?  Did you work at having children?  Did you look forward to the world’s redemption?”  

Please note that “Did you believe in God?” and “Did you observe all the rituals?” are not considered as the first questions to be asked of a Jewish person when they are reunited with God, according to this Rabbinic text.

I titled this sermon Modern Judaism, but that is not an entirely accurate title.  I am actually going to talk about Rabbinic Judaism, the Judaism that all sects of the Jewish people recognize as their faith.  What is Rabbinic Judaism?  We will need to consider a little Jewish history to answer that question.

In the fourth year of his reign, around 833 BCE, the Jewish King Solomon found himself at peace with his neighbors and began the construction of the Temple, a place where the Jewish peoples could come to ground themselves in the practices and rituals of their faith. The site chosen by King David was the top of Mount Moriah, where Abraham had once proved his readiness to offer up his dearly beloved son in obedience to G d's command.  The practices and rituals of the temple were led by Jewish priests.  Now many of the Jewish people made regular pilgrimages to the Temple--the temple and the priests were in Jerusalem--but for most of the Jewish people that was a very long way to go.  They needed people to teach the children Hebrew and to hold a recognition ceremony when a child became an adult, a Bar Mitzvah, and to help the Jewish people in the towns and villages remember, practice, and interpret the basic tenets of their faith, and those were the Rabbis.  Rabbis were and are Jewish scholars, people trained in Jewish law, ritual, and tradition, discerning what is lawful in Judaism and performing Jewish ceremonies.   It was during the first destruction of the Temple, when Israel was defeated and the Jewish people were exiled to Babylonia, that the role of the Rabbi increased in significance.  

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, we also wept, when we remembered Zion. We hung our lyres on the willows in its midst. For there those who carried us away captive required of us a song; and those who tormented us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember you, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy. (Psalms 137:1-6)

While the people of Israel grieved the loss of their country and their Temple, they still practiced their faith.  The Rabbis, rather than the Temple or the priests, were called upon to ground the people in their faith.  It is also believed by many scholars that during this exile the Talmud, the central text of Rabbinic Judaism, was written.  This text contains commentaries and stories written by Rabbis to help the Jewish people interpret the Jewish Bible, its laws and traditions.

The story that Jo Linsley shared with us today is an allegoric Rabbinic story of the final sacking and destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE by the Romans.  The jewels are the tenets of the Jewish faith, G-d’s teachings.  The Jewish people are the pigeons.  The castle was the State of Israel or the Temple in Jerusalem.  Rabbi Tzvi Freeman writes of this story: “In our history, the pattern of destruction and exile has repeated itself many times. We began in exile, in the land of Egypt. Then there was the destruction of the first Holy Temple and exile to Babylonia, and then the second destruction and a very lengthy exile, which we still endure. There is no other nation that has been spread so far apart, yet retained identity as a single whole, always with hope to return. And all of it was part of G-d’s divine plan, to retrieve all the sparks of holiness. Which is what we did, because wherever we go, we use the materials, the foods, the music, the customs of that place in a Torah way.”  

“But now has come the time for us to all return home” is how the story ends.  This can mean the country of Israel; the spiritual home of the Jewish people has returned.  Or it could mean that the Jewish people have created new homes for their faith wherever they live in community with one another.  The latter meaning is closer to a Rabbinical vision of the Jewish faith.  This tradition, with all its destructions and exiles, had to find a new home, a home wherever they were.  The Jewish people carry their faith in their hearts and through their lives, not in a Temple or even in a country.  Those externals are fragile and can be taken away.  Only when a faith lives within the person and through the way they live their lives can it never be taken away. 

Sunday Service: How Do We Help Each Other? May 24th, 2015

How Do We Help One Another

By Reverend Tom Capo

Delivered on 5/24/2015

      A lot of things drew me to DuPage Unitarian Universalist Church last year: your hunger for social justice/social action causes, your hands-on involvement with PADS and Bridges, helping homeless individuals and families, your eagerness to embrace the use of technology on Sunday mornings.  Another quality that made this church stand out for me was the way you take care of each other, and in particular, the Pastoral Ministry Associates, or PMA, Committee.  Revitalized in 2012, the PMA have been able and effective partners in ministry.  They call people, write cards, monitor our Joys and Concerns Facebook page, and generally reach out to the people here in this community who are in crisis, in need, in pain.  This past year our PMA Committee created an on-call schedule to keep track of and follow up with the many members and friends in need.  And one of the things I love about this congregation is that many of you have formally or informally reached out to people in need in this congregation to give them help and/or support.  This winter and spring in particular, have seen an uptick in the number of members and friends who have needed some support, and I have been so gratified and impressed by the consistently nurturing and caring responses this community offers.  DuPage Unitarian Universalist Church is truly a community of love and truly understands how important expressing that love for one another is.  

      And yet, this community, we, are not like one of Shakespeare’s fictional characters.  Our bounty is not “boundless as the sea.”  And so many times, though we love truly and deeply, we don’t find that “the more [love we] give… the more [we] have” to give.  While there is truth in how our hearts can grow as we share our love with one another and with people in need, unlike a fictional character, our love is not infinite.  We are human, and like it or not, we have limits.  

Many of us have been working long and hard this year helping members and friends who are in need, and I’ve wondered about whether some of us might experience some compassion fatigue.

“You cannot say, I need you

So you say, I like your shoes

I cannot say, I see your gods have failed you

So I say, your eyes look so sad

You fold your arms, the sentences for my crimes is life

I lean in, let’s look at those chains

You look past me, eyes wide, I am alone

And the night is coming for me

My heart pounds

Knowing what waits there

Your breath stops to keep

The next door locked and shut

But my left foot

Is already in it

Outside the trees

Are restless with light

In the settling quiet

Each filament of dust

Streaming in from earth or star

Delivers us, mote by mote

From the hour of undoing

Into the hour of mercy

On what wings

We cannot say”

This poem was written by psychotherapist, mystic, and poet Frances Hatfield. 

      I want to be clear that we will always have people in need in the congregation and we should be willing as a community to step up and be there to help them.  This sermon is not about telling people who are in pain, who are suffering, to “suck it up.”  This sermon is about how we care for others and care for ourselves.

Sunday Sermon: Some Thoughts and Feelings on Humanism, Sunday March 22nd, 2015

Some Thoughts and Feelings on Humanism

By Reverend Tom Capo

Preached on 3/22/2015

A member of this church and of our Humanist Group, Jack Seacrest, sent me an email of President Barak Obama’s speech on the 50th anniversary of ‘Bloody Sunday’, a day when thousands marched in Selma, Alabama, for civil rights with Martin Luther King, Jr.  Many were hurt and two were killed.  Here are some excerpts from Obama’s speech:  “What greater expression of faith in the American experiment [is there] than this … the belief that America is not yet finished, that we are strong enough to be self-critical, that each successive generation can look upon our imperfections and decide that it is in our power to remake this nation to more closely align with our highest ideals … ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’ …These are not just words. They are a living thing, a call to action … a roadmap for citizenship and an insistence on the capacity of free men and women to shape our own destiny … [We are] on a mission to change America … the idea of a just America, a fair America, an inclusive America, a generous America …Selma was part of a broader campaign that spanned generations …it is in our power to remake this nation to more closely align with our highest ideals … that all men are created equal … [This is] a roadmap for citizenship and an insistence on the capacity of free men and women to shape our own destiny … This is work for all Americans, and not just some.   All of us are called to possess their moral imagination …to feel, as they did, the fierce urgency of now… change depends on our actions, our attitudes, the things we teach our children.”

Jack felt that this speech spelled out a definition of religion. Religions around the world aspire to do many things.  Religions try to teach people to be of good character by affirming certain moral values and high ideals.  Religious people are encouraged to remake themselves and their world based on these values and ideals; they are told that these changes are urgently needed.  Religions also teach that it is important that these values and ideals are passed on to the next generation.  

For the next several minutes, let's agree that Obama's Selma speech does spell out a definition of religion.  If so, then there are some insights in this definition of religion that we, here at DuPage Unitarian Universalist Church, might reflect upon: What values and ideals do we affirm?   Do we urgently bring them into our lives and out into the world?  And what values and ideals are we passing on to our children?  You might say “I know the answer to the first question—our seven Principles—valuing each person, the democratic process, spiritual growth, the search for meaning and purpose, the interdependent web of all existence, and working for justice, peace, and equality.  How do we use our power to shape these values and ideals in the wider world?  Do we do so with "fierce urgency?" What are the ways we show our children the importance our Unitarian Universalist values and ideals?  

Sunday Service: The Cosmic Evolutionary Journey, March 8th, 2015

The Cosmic Evolutionary Journey

By Reverend Tom Capo

Preached on 3/8/2015

We have seen many images today-- the Big Bang, the evolution of our cosmos, and the evolution of life on this planet.  When I think about the universe and evolution, I am in awe of its ongoing process.  How could you not be?  It is amazing.  

The earliest humans climbed down from the trees to walk upright on the ground. Some theories about human’s ability to walk upright suggest that this change happened to free the hands for tool use and carrying, while others suggest that early humans walked upright to cope with changes in climate and habitat that favored a more elevated eye-position.  And some theories suggest that walking upright resulted in human developing a larger brain.  How many things had to align, had to work out, for us human’s to come into being, to have consciousness, and to be able to reflect on our own existence?    

When I attended General Assembly, maybe 10 years ago, I walked into a workshop sort of by accident.  I had planned to attend a workshop on preaching, but didn’t really engage with the speaker.  So I wandered out, and passed an open door of another workshop.  An image of stars and clouds in space was projected on the screen.  This piqued my curiosity.  So I went in.  The workshop was sponsored by the World Pantheism group.  Let me share with you some information from their website to give you a sense of the message that I heard as I walked in to this workshop:  “Many World Pantheist Movement members belong to Unitarian Universalist congregations and some are UU ministers … The essence of Pantheism is a profound reverence for Nature and the wider Universe and an awed recognition of their power, beauty and mystery.  We tend to believe that Nature and the wider Universe should be the focus of our deepest reverence ... From this feeling flows the desire to make the most of our present life in our bodies on this earth, to care for Nature, and to respect the rights of humans and animals in general.  We believe that everything that exists is a part of Nature … We believe that mind and body are an inseparable unity, and so we do not expect personal survival after death. Instead we look forward to a natural persistence of our time on earth, in the actions and creations we leave behind, memories people hold of us, and recycling of our elements in Nature.”

The presenters also said that this movement within Unitarian Universalism is not about a divine being or a god, though some Pantheists do use the word god to mean the ever-evolving universe, not a separate being.  The World Pantheists also said that they are skeptical of supernatural phenomena.  

I have to say that while I found the images of space profoundly moving and much of what they said compelling, I was not willing to let go of mystery and the possibility of some sort of divinity in all things.  This is a conundrum that I face—why does acceptance of science, evolution, the universe, even rational thought have to be disassociated from religion, spirituality, or impassioned thought?  Why can’t both exist within each of us, in some sort of harmony, or if not harmony, at least in good will?   I had hoped when I walked into the workshop that I had found a group of Unitarian Universalists who were embracing awe and wonder, emotional and spiritual experiences, in addition to rational explanations of our universe.  But they were insistent that any concept of supernaturalism or divinity was unacceptable to a true pantheist.  

Perhaps these Pantheist Unitarian Universalists were trying to bridge the assumed gap between rationalism and the emotional/spiritual.  Perhaps they felt that scientific explanations and theories might benefit from poetic imagery, from a lyricism of language.  And in this I agree with them.  I commend them for threading their philosophy with awe and wonder and mystery.  How could you not when you look up at night and see the stars and planets?  However their mystery is limited, controlled.  It seems to me that a mystery is not a true mystery unless it is limitless, open to any possibility.

In our story today, Anansi the spider is caught in her own conundrum.  Does she help the snake by removing the stone on his back and risk being bitten, or does she leave the snake, perhaps to die, under the stone?  Now I read this story a number of times and wondered what it meant.  Does it mean don’t risk helping someone who might hurt you?  Does it mean there is evil in the world that even a compassionate act can’t change?  Does it mean let evil or destructive people die?  Does it mean an animal, or person, is unlikely to act against its true nature?  Or perhaps be clever in how you deal with things that might hurt you?  In pondering the story, I wondered if there is another lesson that we might bring to bear.  Are we willing to risk reaching out to those who are different from us, even if we might get hurt, for a greater good?  Anansi helped the snake and got bitten.  What if the story focused on Anansi reaching across natural lines and her own fear?  What if the point of the story was that she had decided to do something beneficial even at the risk of being bitten?  That perhaps she had planted a seed in the snake that might sometime in the future lead to great spider-snake relations?  

This leads to another conundrum that I face, how can we write a compelling story of the ever-evolving universe for all people—people of all beliefs, all cultures?  How can we reach across what we assume to be naturally existing lines in the sand between certain Theists and certain secularists, when both sides have been hurt by the other and probably will be hurt again?  How can all humanity, all the spiders and snakes, embrace the great story of the cosmos; a story that is based on the scientific discoveries of the universe, while not discounting the possibility of mystery and include metaphor and belief?

Two people who are exploring this cosmic evolutionary story with mystery and metaphor, as well as scientific facts and theories, are Progressive Christian minister, Reverend Michael Dowd, and his wife, Unitarian Universalist, evolutionary humanist, and botanist, Connie Barlow.  Dowd and Barlow consider it their mission to travel around the world in their van, teaching and preaching evolution to Christians as well as anyone else who will listen, including Unitarian Universalists.  One of Dowd’s bestselling books is “Thank God for Evolution!”  In the first few pages, he quotes various scientists, such as Craig Mello, 2006 Nobel Prize winner in Physiology and Medicine and John Mather, a NASA chief scientist, and 2006 Nobel Prize winner in Physics, as well as Theologian Matthew Fox and Unitarian Universalist and senior minister of All Souls Unitarian Church Tulsa in Oklahoma (one of our largest congregations), Reverend Marlin Lavanhar.   All praise this book, which gives a clear scientific explanation of the universe and evolution, while also explaining how religion and spirituality need to embrace the cosmic evolutionary understanding of the universe.  Dowd also includes a letter from Richard Dawkins to his daughter Joliet about the difference between good reasons and bad reasons for believing in something.  Some of you may have read this letter.  Dowd wants us to engage in the difficult discussions of science and religion across assumed natural lines, risking getting hurt, to change the world.  He feels it is necessary to bring science and religion together for the future of our planet and our species.  He writes: [We are] a force that is polluting the planet and causing mass extinction, but at the same time [we are] a unique and precious expression of Earth. We are Earth’s meaning makers, painters, self-discoverers, storytellers, and bards. We are Earth’s deep memory. If we can embrace that as our unique ecological role, if we can learn and celebrate our Great Story [the story of the Big Bang and evolution], if we truly can see ourselves as actual cells of our larger body, Earth, then caring for the environment will feel as urgent and as natural as caring for ourselves.”

What draws you in, emotionally, to commit yourself to a cause?  How do people change their behavior, change their way of understanding the world?  From what I have seen, the answers to these two questions are: you either have a profound experience or you hear a story that is engaging, moving.  People are rarely changed or even motivated by facts alone; I know it is sad to say, but that is the truth.  A rational argument is generally accepted by someone who is already emotionally ready to receive it.   

Like Dowd and Barlow, I believe we need to tell the great story of our ever-evolving universe in a way that all people can hear it.  We need to find a way to tell it with passion and awe and mystery.  We can use old and new stories and metaphors to bring this story to life.   We need to be compelling storytellers without losing our facts, figures, and theories.  And no matter how compelling our story may be, if we tell our listener that they are wrong or stupid or irrational for having their creation stories, then we will enlighten no-one.  Each of the following three statements is like a facet of the same prism:

“In the Beginning was the Big Bang”

“In the Beginning was the Great Radiance.”

“In the Beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

Wouldn’t it be great if someday, theists, deists, atheists, and agnostics could hear each of these phrases as essentially equal interpretations, only differing in the hue as the light travels through the prism?

Dowd writes: “So far as can be known, we are the only animals blessed and burdened with a mythopoetic drive.  We simply cannot not make events mean something.  [And we cannot not stop ourselves from telling stories that share this meaning].  For example, each of us tends to recall the events of our life in ways that render the whole into something meaningful, a coherent pattern that explains how we became who we are today and how we got to where we are…we yearn for a story that can make sense of our birth… the story of our parents, [and] the story of how everything came to be.”  Dowd goes on to say that stories are the vehicle of this mythopoetic, or religious, urge in each of us; the urge that calls from within to seek and find answers to the Big Questions of existence.  He suggests that we need the old stories to help interpret the present, to help us make meaning of the scientific discoveries and the ever evolving universe, and to help us secure a future for those who will come after us.

Could you imagine yourself telling this story:  

“In the beginning, all the universe was compacted into a very tiny space.  Was this the beginning of time or perhaps just a beginning?  We do not know for sure.  Then something caused an explosion—an explosion so big that all the pieces of the universe were sent speeding away from each other in all directions.  We call this explosion by many names: the Big Bang, the Great Radiance, the Hand of God.  From this explosion, light, energy, matter began to find shape, to exist in different ways—some formed stars, others, planets, others, remained as dust and clouds.  

In time, this star dust, either through nature, chance, divine assistance, or by properties that we don’t fully understand, became elements like gold, lead, oxygen; and later this star dust became oceans and land; and later this star dust became living things—animals and plants.  And even later, this star dust became us.  And now we study the star dust.”

How would a humanist hear this story?  How would a Christian or Hindu hear this story?  Could this kind of story create a bridge where we, people of all faiths, could stand together and engage in meaningful dialogue about our ever evolving universe and our connection to it?  

I invite you to listen with heart and mind to these words by Unitarian Universalist humanist, Reverend Robert T. Weston; notice how he weaves science and spirituality: 

“Out of the stars in their flight, out of the dust of eternity, here have we come, Stardust and sunlight, mingling through time and through space.  Out of the stars have we come, up from time; Out of the stars have we come. 

Time out of time before time in the vastness of space, earth spun to orbit the sun, 

Earth with the thunder of mountains newborn, the boiling of seas. Earth warmed by sun, lit by sunlight: This is our home; Out of the stars have we come.  Mystery hidden in mystery, back through all time; Mystery rising from rocks in the storm and the sea. Out of the stars, rising from rocks and the sea, kindled by sunlight on earth, arose life. 

Ponder this thing in your heart; ponder with awe: 

Out of the sea to the land, out of the shallows came ferns. Out of the sea to the land, up from darkness to light, Rising to walk and to fly, out of the sea trembled life. Ponder this thing in your heart, life up from sea: Eyes to behold, throats to sing, mates to love. Life from the sea, warmed by sun, washed by rain, life from within, giving birth, rose to love.  This is the wonder of time; this is the marvel of space; out of the stars swung the earth; life upon earth rose to love. This is the marvel of life, rising to see and to know; Out of your heart, cry wonder: sing that we live.” 

Perhaps in these words there is a beginning; a place where people of all beliefs can create a great story; a place where humanity can, out of their hearts, cry wonder about this universe we live in and sing together as we live.  

Sunday Service: Christianity, A Different View - February 8, 2015

Christianity, A Different View

Reverend Tom Capo

Preached on 2/8/2015

Before the sermon, I offer this prayer or meditation.  It is selections from the The Thunder: Perfect Mind.  In December 1945, local farmers in Nag Hamadi, Egypt found a sealed earthenware jar containing thirteen leather-bound papyrus codices, together with pages torn from another book.  It is believed that the documents found at Nag Hamadi were texts used by various sects of early Christians, but the texts had been deemed heretical once the church began to formalize the books of the Christian New Testament.  The Thunder: Perfect Mind was contained in those thirteen leather-bound papyrus codices.

I invite you to open your mind, heart, and spirit to these words:

I was sent forth from the power,

and I have come to those who reflect upon me, 

and I have been found among those who seek after me. 

Look upon me, you who reflect upon me,

and you hearers, hear me. 

You who are waiting for me, take me to yourselves. 

And do not banish me from your sight.

And do not make your voice hate me, nor your hearing…

For I am the first and the last.

I am the honored one and the scorned one.

I am the whore and the holy one.

I am the wife and the virgin.

I am <the mother> and the daughter.

I am the members of my mother.

I am the barren one

and many are her sons. 

I am she whose wedding is great,

and I have not taken a husband. 

I am the midwife and she who does not bear.

I am the solace of my labor pains.

I am the bride and the bridegroom,

and it is my husband who begot me. 

I am the mother of my father

and the sister of my husband 

and he is my offspring… 

I am the silence that is incomprehensible

and the idea whose remembrance is frequent. 

I am the voice whose sound is manifold

and the word whose appearance is multiple. 

I am the utterance of my name…

For I am knowledge and ignorance.

I am shame and boldness.

I am shameless; I am ashamed.

I am strength and I am fear.

I am war and peace.

Give heed to me…

Hear me, you hearers

and learn of my words, you who know me. 

I am the hearing that is attainable to everything;

I am the speech that cannot be grasped. 

I am the name of the sound

and the sound of the name. 

I am the sign of the letter

and the designation of the division.

Blessed Be…Amen

Sermon

One of the symbols of early Christianity was not a cross; it was an ankor.  This symbol was used to encourage hope in a time of persecution, and held its meaning from the Hebrew scripture: “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.” 

As we begin our journey I thought I would start with this from the Gospel of Thomas, an early Christian text, “Jesus said: “Let the one who seeks continue seeking until he finds.  And when that one finds he will be disturbed, and once that one is disturbed he will become awed, and will rule as a king over the all.”  

We are all seekers here; that it the very essence of our faith, to seek truth and meaning individually and collectively, to share with one another and be enriched and disturbed by one another.  To look more closely at ourselves, each other, and the universe around us, and be awed by what we see.  We will find that life is not static, belief is not static, the universe is not static. If we believe in the divine, perhaps we will find even the divine is not static.  We are all co-creators, integral parts of the beauty and wonder that surrounds us.  

Sunday Service: The Path of Buddhism - January 11th, 2015

Editor's Note:  Along with a congregational service on Buddhism, our Religious Education programming is devoting time to learning more about this major world religion.  Youth in their Sunday classes will spend time this year on the religion, its tenets and practices - and adults are welcome to attend the five-week course led by Rev. Tom starting January 18th.  Details available HERE

The Path of Buddhism

By Reverend Tom Capo

Preached on 1/11/2015

How many of you know the story of Siddhartha Gautama or as he came to be known, the Buddha?  Well, just so we start in the same place, let me tell you the Cliff Notes version of his life.  His father was a king, who believed that Siddhartha would either become a great king or a great religious leader, and since he wanted his son to become a great king, he kept his son secluded on their castle grounds.  One day Siddhartha went outside the grounds, and saw old people, sad people, and sick people.  He was greatly moved by this exposure.  So he left the castle and started studying with great spiritual teachers and tried many spiritual practices to find how one might cope with the problems of this life.  Eventually, he found himself sitting under a Bodhi tree meditating, and he realized, that is, he became enlightened, that there was a path to deal with suffering in the world.  He realized that there will always be suffering; our lives have ups and downs—that is the way life is.  And suffering is not intended to convey a negative view of the world or of life.   Tibetan Buddhist monk, Pema Chodron (choe drun), wrote: “When we resist change, it’s called suffering. But when we can completely let go and not struggle against it, when we can embrace the groundlessness of our situation and relax into its dynamic quality, that’s called enlightenment, or awakening to our true nature, to our fundamental goodness.”  In order to deal with suffering, one needs to have a down-to-earth, reasonable understanding of suffering, and see the world as it is—not as we want it to be.  In other words one day or another there will be suffering in your life—so it is best to learn to cope with suffering without letting it control you.

Sunday Service: The Complexity & Simplicity of Hinduism - Sunday January 4, 2015

The Complexity and Simplicity of Hinduism

Preached on 1/04/2015

By Reverend Tom Capo

First let me share a few interesting facts about Hinduism. (Hindu.BZ.com and hindu facebook)

1. More than 10,000 years ago the institution of marriage was founded and put forth in practice by Hindus.

2. The Rigveda, one of Hindu's holy scriptures, is the oldest literature known to humanity.

3. According to the Vedas, lending money on interest is a bad Karma.  We will talk about Karma later. 

4. According to the Vedas, Om, Hinduism's most sacred sound, is the sound which was present at the time of creation of universe.

5. Parents, teachers, and food are considered next to God.  That makes sense to me somehow.

6. Because of the usefulness of rivers, they are highly revered in Hinduism. People call them mother. 

7. Hindus believe that we get the human body when our soul passes through 8,400,000 species of plants and animals.

I could go on with interesting facts or tell you about the gods and goddesses of Hinduism, or the social caste system--the societal level that each person is assigned based on their birth; or I could talk about the various ways that people practice their faith, or all the religious texts and their meaning to various sects of Hinduism; or I could talk about the various rituals, holidays, and pilgrimages.  If I chose to talk about even one of these in detail, we would be here for a very very long time.  You see Hinduism is a collective term applied to the many philosophical and religious traditions native to India.  In a strict sense there was no 'Hinduism' before modern times, although the sources of Hindu traditions are very ancient.  And Hinduism has no definite starting point that anyone has been able to discover. The traditions which flow into Hinduism may go back several thousand years and some practitioners claim that revelation in Hinduism is eternal; sound familiar?

Sunday Service: Those Who Are Homeless - October 12th, 2014

Those Who Are Homeless

Reverend Tom

10/12/2014

I have had many experiences with homeless people.  As I share some of them with you, I ask you to reflect on your experiences with people who are homeless.  

I was one of the initiators of a homeless emergency shelter program in Cedar Rapids called Family Promise.  I felt this was a vital program; it provides shelter for three intact families—meaning the father and male teenagers could join the rest of the family in the shelter, which is not the case in most homeless shelters—these three families would stay within church buildings at night and a day shelter during the day, if they were not at work or in school.  However, it wasn’t until I actually spent time with one homeless family in this program that I came to understand how being homeless profoundly affects a person.  I mean I knew from what I had read and what others had said to me, but my friends that is very different from actually spending time with someone who is homeless.  I brought a meal to a mother, her preteen daughter, and 6 year old son.  As we ate she talked about how she had a job but did not make enough money to buy a vehicle or rent an apartment.  She was trying to get a better job, and had hopes of leaving the Family Promise program very soon.  Her daughter was very quiet as we ate together, and after the meal found a corner in the church building to sit and read.  Her son was a ball of energy.  He wanted to play and had no-one to play with.  So I spent an hour or so throwing a ball around a large community room with him.  He seemed to really have a great time.  But having so much energy was taxing on his mother, who at times, demonstrated an abruptness with her son that showed the pervasive exhaustion that being homeless can cause.  I understood on a visceral level how this young woman craved someone to affirm her worth and dignity.  As she first entered the room for dinner, her depression weighed so heavily on her shoulders that she walked hunched over and her eyes were downcast.  After some time in conversation, with me, though it could have been anyone who would listen to her, her eyes brightened, her body seemed to gain some strength, and she eventually relaxed enough to lean against the table as we talked as if we had known each other for years.  

Sunday Service: A Hunger for Justice - October, 5th, 2014

A Hunger For Justice

Reverend Tom Capo

October 5, 2014

We affirm justice, equity, and compassion in human relations.  I’m going to ask you the same question I asked last month when we explored “Beloved Community.”  What does “affirm” really mean to us, individually and as a congregation? What does “affirm” really look like? Many of you do work in the community, or perhaps in your jobs, to help others, to fight injustice, to educate those who are unaware of the some of the human, animal, and ecological crises our world faces.  I know that many of you are yearning, hungry for justice, equity, and compassion in our world.

What does it mean really mean to be “hungry for justice?”  Are these just words we bandy about during coffee hour and snack after the service?  “Here, have some fair trade chocolate.”  “Thanks I am hungry for justice!”  Is it a personal question?  “I got detention because I was sitting next to the person who was disrupting class.  But it wasn’t me!  I was just sitting there!  It’s totally not fair and I’m going to get my parents to file a complaint!  I am hungry for justice!”  Or is it a different kind of personal question?  “I’ve read the Unitarian Universalist Association’s 2013-2014 Common Read Behind the Kitchen Door, about wage inequality and unfair working conditions in the majority of our nation’s restaurants.  I am hungry for justice and I’m going to do something about this.”

Sunday Service: Not Just I, Community is We - September 21st, 2014

Not just I, Community is We

Reverend Tom Capo

9/21/2014

A long long time ago

I can still remember how the music used to make me smile

And I knew if I had my chance

That I could make those people dance

And maybe the’d be happy for a while

But February made me shiver

With every paper I’d deliver

Bad news on the doorstep

I couldn’t take one more step

Great works of art, music included, ask the viewer or listener to bring a little of themselves into the experience.  Thus, the meaning of art or music is constantly shifting little, nuanced by whatever the viewer’s or listen’s life, wherever they are on their journey.  Don McLean, the writer and composer of “American Pie” never really talked about what he was trying to say when he wrote the song.  Many other people have attributed meaning to it.  Some say that McLean was talking about the turbulent 60’s, some that McLean was expressing regret over the death of the civil rights movement, some that McLean was bemoaning the death of danceable rock and roll music.  Some have written that McLean was grieving for what he perceived as the death of religion and other traditional ideas from his childhood.   Others have found what they believe to be references to rock musicians Buddy Holly,Janis Joplin, and the Beatles, civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. and politicians President Jack Kennedy, and Senator Bobby Kennedy.  And we hear names in the song, including communist and socialist revolutionaries Vladimir Lenin, and Karl Marx, in addition to the Catholic Trinity, the father, son, and holy ghost, and actor James Dean.  What could this song have to do with beloved community?  So, how does “America Pie” speak to us about being in covenant with one another as a beloved community?

Sunday Service: How Do We Love Another - September 14th, 2014

How Do We Love One Another

9/14/2014

Reverend Tom Capo

I often use the phrase “Beloved Community.”  Do you wonder what I mean by that?  Have you ever asked yourself “how do I act if I am part of a beloved community?”  I’m curious about what each of us means by this term.  I believe we are all on the same page with community—a group of people gathered together for a purpose.  But what about beloved?  Are we talking about infatuation, puppy love, conditional love, parental love, soul-mate love, divine or spiritual love, patriotism (love of country), tough love, self-love?  No matter how many definitions or synonyms you might find—and there are a lot—chances are none of them completely captures the full meaning of love.

I have come to believe what the great psychoanalyst Erich Fromm says about love: “Love is a decision, it is a judgment, it is a promise. If love were only a feeling, there would be no basis for the promise to love each other forever. A feeling comes and it may go. How can I judge that it will stay forever, when my act does not involve judgment and decision.”  In other words my friends, love is not a feeling.  Although it is so very easy to assume that it is.  Really, love causes a feeling; love is a decision you make, and decisions you continue to make, in order to create an experience that is described as love.  

Sunday Sermon: Ingathering Service & Water Communion - September 7th, 2014

Ingathering Service 2014

Water Communion

Reverend Tom Capo

Story--The Water Bearer's Garden  (Reverend Tom)

(From uu & me! Collected Stories, edited by Betsy Hill Williams; Boston: Skinner House, 2003). 

A water bearer in India had two large pots, each hung on one end of a pole that he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it. At the end of the long walk from the stream on the master's house, the cracked pot arrived only half full, while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. For two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water to his master's house.

Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect to the end for which it was made. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do. After two years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream. "I am ashamed of myself, and I want to apologize to you."

"Why?" asked the bearer, "What are you ashamed of?"

"I have been able, for these past two years, to deliver only half my load because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your master's house.

Because of my flaws, you have to do all this work, and you don't get full value from our efforts," the pot said.

The water bearer felt sorry for the cracked pot, and in his compassion he said, "As we return to the master's house I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path."

Indeed, as they went up the hill, the old cracked pot took notice of the sun warming the beautiful wild flowers on the side of the path, and this cheered it some. But at the end of the trail, it still felt sad because it had leaked out half its load, and so again the pot apologized to the bearer for its failure.

The bearer said to the pot, "Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side? That's because I have always known about your flaw, and I took advantage of it. I planted flower seeds on our side of the path, and every day while we walk back from the stream, you've watered them. For two years I have been able to pick beautiful flowers to decorate my master's table. Without you being just the way you are, he would not have this beauty to grace his house.

"We all have our own unique flaws. We are all cracked pots. In the great web of life, nothing goes to waste. Don't be afraid of your flaws. Acknowledge them, and you too can be the cause of beauty. Know that in our weakness we find our strength.

Sunday Sermon: Where Are We Going - August 17th, 2014

“Where Are We Going” 

By Reverend Tom Capo

8/17/2014

Here is a future of Unitarian Universalism: Chalice Man and his Friend, the Flame, save people from fundamentalist beliefs and spread the message of Unitarian Universalism to all those in need of our free faith telling everyone that they meet about a faith home where people can responsibly search for truth and meaning without creeds or dogmas.

Actually, this probably isn’t the future of Unitarian Universalism.  But what is? 

Sunday Sermon: Who We Are (in Unitarian Universalism) Today - August 10th, 2014

“Who Are We (in Unitarian Universalism) Today”

By Reverend Tom Capo

August 10, 2014

The God of Abraham said to Moses: “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”

Now you might wonder why I started out with this excerpt from the Jewish Torah.  Well, to explain this, let me start with a little about myself.  I grew up Catholic and when I was in High School I realized that I no longer held the same beliefs as the other people in my church.  I did not believe that women shouldn’t use contraception; I didn’t believe that a woman shouldn’t have the right to choose whether to have a child or not; I no longer believed in the Trinity—a Father-God, Son-God, and Holy Spirit-God, all in one.  I found myself unable to participate in Communion or Confession; I could no longer even say the Lord’s Prayer.  I felt in exile from the faith of my childhood.  And I quickly realized that I would no longer fit in any Christological faith home.  I was in exile from all Christian churches, an exile that was imposed by myself, yes, but also imposed by churches that would only welcome me if I accepted and professed their dogma.

The Human Spirit with Rev. Tom

Sunday marked the beginning of a new chapter at DuPage Unitarian Universalist Church (DUUC) as Reverend Tom Capo lead his first Sunday service.

You can read all about Rev. Tom's journey join DUUC HERE and share in our excitement to have him as the minister to our congregation and local community.

Rev. Tom will be contributing to this blog and in time we hope to have his sermons (both video and script) available for all through this forum.

In addition we are pleased that he will be journaling his own experience in ministry at:
http://reverendtomcapo.blogspot.com/

His first posting is up and we invite our congregants and friends to read his First Reflection.

We also welcome you every week to join us on Sunday for our service, coffee/lemonade social hour, and youth religious education. 

*Remember - through August we hold one Sunday Service at 10:00am*  

Summertime at DUUC!

Picnics, watermelon, bike rides, swimming, flip-flops,  BBQs, and popsicles.  We all look forward to different things in the summer!

Here at DuPage Unitarian Universalist Church (DUUC) we celebrate summer with our sermons, adventures together, activities on-site, and a change in our service schedule.

Starting this Sunday, June 15th, we will have one regular service at 10:00am.  Please mark your calendars for service:  SUNDAYS AT 10:00am

We just kicked off the summer with our annual BBQ, a pancake breakfast (see Chef Michael on our Facebook page) and have lots more fun planned!  Please join us this summer and add DUUC as one of your summertime pleasures!

Dates to remember as follows:

Sunday 6/15:  Sunday Service and Youth Religious Education @ 10:00am

Saturday 6/21:  Summer Solstice Celebration @ 4:00pm

Sunday 6/22:  June 22nd, 2014:  Sunday Service and Youth Religious Education @ 10:00am

Sunday 6/29:  Chicago Gay Pride Parade
(a group from DUUC will walk together in support of the LGBT community meeting at DUUC at 9:00am to carpool)

Sunday 6/29:  Sunday Service and Youth Religious Education @ 10:00am

Sunday 7/6:  Sunday Service and Youth Religious Education @ 10:00am

For more details on our service topics, or contact information for the above mentioned events, please check our our church newsletter HERE! 

Be An ALLY!

March 3, 2013

Be An ALLY! @ 9:30am & 11:15am
DUUC LGBTQ Welcoming CongregationIn 1999 DUUC achieved "Welcoming Congregation" status within the UUA; completing 2 years of study, self-assessment and a congregational vote on our commitment to making DUUC a safe spiritual haven for LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning) people. Recently, under the assistance of last year's ministerial intern, Charlotte Lehmann, DUUC members were invited to learn about, reflect and act on our Welcoming Congregation status. The newly formed group will lead the service, inviting the congregation to renew our commitment for LGBTQ equality; to be an ALLY at home, school, church and at work. An ALLY can be someone who is supportive and accepting or someone who actively advocates for equal rights and fair treatment. This service is dedicated to honoring DUUC's commitment and will include thoughts, stories, guided imagery and music to celebrate our LGBTQ friends and family.

Purim Principles

[Reflections on the story of Esther as portrayed in the Feb 24 DUUC sermon]

I didn't really know much about the Jewish Purim holiday prior yesterday's service. Afterward, I have more questions than answers. Let's see if that works out better for me now than it did during my fundamentalist Christian upbringing.

The first part of the story is about the king wanting to have his (attractive) wife parade around in front of his court buddies to show her off like a piece of meat. [I don't remember if this was mentioned in the sermon, but in the original story the king is "merry with wine" at the time.] The wife, Vashti, does not comply, and the king strips her of her crown and banishes her. [In the original text, this is decreed in such a way that all husbands are designated as rulers in their homes, and all wives are to honor their husbands.]

My reaction (with apologies to Mel Brooks): "Good to be the king!"
Emmy Lou's commentary (as I heard it): This was Vashti's own fault. She may have been within her rights to assert herself, but those rights were nullified by her lack of people skills.
My question: doesn't this demonstrate a spectacular level of inequality and sexism, and shouldn't we be taking Vashti's side unequivocally?

Next, the king orders the kingdom's virgins to be arrayed before him so that he can choose a replacement queen using a process of visual inspection.

My reaction: (see previous)
My question: (do I even need to ask?)

The king chooses Mordecai's cousin, Esther, as his new queen.

My reaction: Yay, Esther!! Way to... be... the prettiest virgin?
My questions: Is this one of those things that we just have to accept as being part of the times in which the story was set? Like animal sacrifice, or slavery? (Because God is powerless to affect social changes at a rate faster than humans can work them out on their own?) And if you're female and not the prettiest virgin, are you just [euphemism for not being a virgin any more]?

Ok, this is all setup for the main story line, so maybe we don't need to pay much attention. Now things get interesting. The king's minister, Haman (queue vociferous shaking of mac&cheese packages) is vexed because Mordecai, in accordance with Jewish tradition, does not bow down in Haman's presence.

My reaction: Whatever, every story needs a villain and some conflict.
My questions: Presumably Mordecai doesn't bow for the king either, so why does this bother Haman and not the king? And presumably Esther doesn't bow for either of them, so why is it only Mordecai who gets noticed? Or, because Mordecai had instructed Esther to conceal her Jewish identity, maybe Esther DID bow down (and thereby violated Jewish law, but was never punished, so maybe that particular law wasn't really all that important?)

ANYWAY, Haman decides to use Mordecai's obduracy as a pretext to petition the king to issue a decree (which he does) ordering the killing of all members of  "a certain people" (without mentioning Jews by name), along with the confiscation of all their property for deposit in the royal treasury.

My reaction: Obvious Hitler parallel. 
My question: No question, this seems plainly immoral, and (spoiler alert) Haman eventually meets his end. But how the heck does the king issue a blanket execution decree against "a certain people" without knowing who they are? Is he not the least bit curious? Does he allow any other ministers to issue blanket execution decrees, or just Haman?

Once Esther learns of this decree, she

• asks all the Jews to fast for three days, and 
• sets in motion a plan to have a series of banquets for the king and Haman. (The fact that no other court officials were invited to these banquets stokes Haman's ego and reveals Esther's people skills.) 

Meanwhile, Haman builds a massive gallows in his front yard on which he intends to hang Mordecai.

At the same time, the king

• learns that Mordecai had once saved his life
• asks Haman what reward would be fitting for someone who had saved the king's life, and
• orders Haman to provide the reward he had suggested (thinking it was for himself) to Mordecai.

My reaction: Ok, having Haman being forced to shower Mordecai with rewards is a reasonably clever plot twist.
My questions: What is the fasting for? Why are the Jews supposed to fast, when Haman and the king are the only ones who will be feasting? Will the fasting hide their Jewishness and help them fit in better? 
How does a gallows in your front yard impact the resale value of your property, especially (another spoiler alert, sorry) with you hanging from it? 
And what is it with the women always in charge of the food?

At the second feast day, Esther reveals to the king that his blanket execution decree is actually against Jews, and that she herself is a Jew. The king asks who is responsible for this decree, and Esther identifies Haman. The king has Hamon hanged on the very gallows he (Hamon) had build for Mordecai, on his front lawn.

My reaction: Cliche, the plot is revealed, justice is done, blah blah...
My questions: Is Esther still a virgin at this point in the story? If not, couldn't she have used some influence other than culinary arts to get an audience with the king? (If she is still a virgin, is there something about "biblical marriage" that we're not being told?) And at the risk of repetitiousness, how much wine has this king had that he doesn't know that he has ordered mass executions?

In the sermon, the story ends when the king -- being unable to alter prior decrees -- issues a followup decree allowing the Jews to defend themselves, and everyone lives happily ever after.

In the full biblical story, the followup decree gives Jews the right to conduct preemptive murder against would-be attackers, and... well, let me quote the source: "And many of the people of the land became Jews; for the fear of the Jews fell upon them. Thus the Jews smote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and slaughter, and destruction, and did what they would unto those that hated them." And then Esther asked that the (already dead) bodies of Haman's ten sons be strung up on the gallows in Hamon's front yard, and asked for the Jews to be allowed to keep killing for a second day, and then they had several days of feasting. Mordecai became the king's right-hand man, and to this day the celebration of Purim is held every year on the 14th day of Adar. The end.

My reaction to the sermon: The ending seems much tamer than most such Old Testament stories. Also, EL made the initial point that Vashti was somehow at fault for not being as subtle and manipulative (my interpretation, not her exact words) as Esther had been in speaking truth to power. Then later, when discussing the tactics of elder women she remembered from her youth, she seemed to reverse herself and suggest that women should be able to speak truth to power more directly, with less use of feminine wiles (again, my interpretation, not necessarily her words.) 
My reaction to the full text:  Oh yeah, THERE'S the biblical morality I've come to expect.
My questions: The king cannot change a decree? Seriously? The ONLY possible solution was to issue a counter-decree authorizing preemptive murder-at-will? And once the two offsetting decrees were in place, why did the Jews seem to have the upper hand? Did the Jews massively outnumber the gentiles back then (in which case, why was Mordecai the only one caught not bowing?) Were Jews naturally bigger and stronger than gentiles in those days, or better with weapons? And what does it mean that the Jews "did what they would" to those that hated them? (Esther 9:5) First they smote them with swords, then with slaughter, then with destruction, and THEN they "did what they would"?!?

Regarding the speaking of truth to power, can this be done directly (with all possible civility, of course), or must some level of subterfuge  be involved? If subterfuge is deemed necessary, are there any rules on how far it can be taken? If Vashti's direct approach was in the right, what does it mean that the story seems to approve of her dismissal?

What moral lessons are we to learn from this? "If you are the prettiest virgin in the land, you can ask the king to release you from one immoral edict by issuing another immoral edict, as long as you serve him dinner and liquor him up first"?  Why is this a better source of moral guidance than, say, Aesop's Fables or Grimm's Fairy Tales?