“Listen or thy tongue will keep thee deaf” – Native American Proverb

Lighting of the Chalice - Words by Rev. Fred Keip, music by Marilyn Bennet

We are gathered here today to engage in activity of the highest order: to learn. We are here to learn from one another, how we can best seek peace, and preserve life in our world. In the best spirit of learning, let us listen closely to one another, but more than that, let us look deep within ourselves, examine our deeper motives, and in that seeking, call on that spirit which exists deep in the soul of each human being, to guide us through this day and through all the days ahead.

Let us accept that we can never learn too much about the nature and value of life, and let us keep ourselves open to one another, trusting that in the spirit of openness, and sharing from our personal depth, we will begin to grasp elements of truth through which, when put into constructive action, we may serve humanity honorably and well, and offer to earth's children, a future of hope and promise for all of life.

Story for All Ages: “How Eagle Learned He Could Fly”

The Legend of the Eagle (As told by Marilyn Whirlwind on Northern Exposure, Episode 5.6, "Birds of a Feather")

On the rock at the cliff

The eagle wasn't always the eagle.

The eagle, before he became the eagle, was Ukatangi, the talker.

Ukatangi talked and talked. It talked so much, it heard only itself.

Not the river, not the wind, not even the wolf.

The raven came and said, "The wolf is hungry. If you stop talking, you will hear him. The wind, too.

And when you hear the wind, you will fly."

So he stopped talking.

And became it's nature, the eagle.

The eagle soared, and it's flight said all it needed to say.

A Native American understanding of Listening:

When you talk to a person, you tell them. Instruct them. You want them to know you talk with your heart. When you talk from your heart it goes up out of your eyes, into the other's eyes, and comes back down into their heart. That's the way these stories and instructions were told to me.

It goes from one heart to another heart and it keeps going around like that. That's the way our old people did it and that's the way I think about all the things that I do now. The old ones passed it from heart to heart. That's the way I was told. They'd say, "Look at me. I want to talk to you."

So you sit there and you don't say anything back. You just keep quiet. When they get to a certain point and they want to make you understand, their voice changes and becomes like, ready to cry, it gets so intense. That's when you know they are very sincere. Their voice gets shakey.

"Listen."

You listen. Then you can feel the tears come out of your eyes and you know the feelings that they've given you. They stay there. It's so intense.

(Axtell & Aragon, 1997, p. 204-205)

Slide and Music Meditation: Sound of Silence – Simon and Garfunkle

Reading: The Mouse and the Camel – Rumi

A mouse caught hold of a camel's lead rope in his two forelegs and walked off with it, imitating the camel drivers.

The camel went along, letting the mouse feel heroic. – 5

"Enjoy yourself," he thought, " I have something to teach you, presently."

They came to the edge of a great river. The mouse was dumbfounded.

“Step forward into the river. You are my leader. – 10 Don't stop here." "I'm afraid of being drowned."

The camel walked into the water. "It's only just about the knee." "Your knee! Your knee is a hundred times over my head!" – 15

"Well, maybe you shouldn't be leading a camel, Stay with those like yourself. A Mouse has nothing really to say to a camel."

"Would you help me get across?"

You are not a prophet, but go humble on the way of the prophets, – 20 and you can arrive where they are. Don't try to steer the boat. don't open up a shop by yourself. Listen. Keep silent. you are not God's mouthpiece. Try to be an ear, and if you do speak, ask for explanations.

Homily: Try to Be an Ear – Rev. Dennis Daniel

(what follows are the notes from which the homily was delivered)

I’m not a voluble person My wife has accused me of being a Sphinx

train self to listen

rather than chatter in head

conversation not competitive sport

no points for most air time

train self to wait for intuition

don’t process conscoiously

happens at deeper level

have to wait for result

can’t force, flows by itself

So, though taciturn

I understand Rumi’s directive

try to be an ear

for me, often means searching out meaning

from Scripture or poetry

asking clarifying questions during counseling

or, like this morning, reconciling differences

Rumi, Paul Simon, Eagle, diversity workshop

Start with the Mouse

color animation

Mortimer Mouse

hawser over shoulder

look at me, I’m a camel driver

like child in parked car

cut to camel’s face,

rolling of eyes – humor him

starts to move in direction of mouse

come to river

mouse stops

camel walks into water

chides mouse

hundred times deeper than my knee

“Mouse has nothing to say to camel”

moment of humility

“would you help me get across?”

Then voice of authority

you are not God’s mouthpiece

try to be an ear

listen and ask clarifying questions

First several times, addressed to mouse

then noticed, mouse had asked for help

words may have been addressed to camel

not God’s mouthpiece

mouse may indeed have something to say to camel

listen and ask

Very like advice from Raven to Yucatangee

stop talking so much

listen, you will hear Wolf in his hunger

and river, and wind

when you hear wind you will fly

meaning: discover your true nature

capacities and ways of experiencing life

you never dreamed possible

become different kind of being

maybe answer to “would you help me get across” is

“learn to listen and you’ll discover

that you already know how to get across on your own”

Meditation as quieting the mind

ducking under all its noise

Prayer as listening for guiding voice

can’t come if we are filling head with own voice

Ministers at retreat

UUA asking congs in search to certify that

they would not refuse to interview

because of race, disability, age, gender, sexual orientation

asking ministers to refuse call to non-complying cong

debate about polity and authority

also about possibility of learning change

take pulpit to begin process of reeducation

more open, enlightened, willing to chance diversity

Me, listening

very young in ministry at time

veterans all sounding as tho they knew what they were talking about

and I hadn’t first notion

how to undo homophobia

could barely say I had unlearned my own

very naive about race did know about wounded healer

freshly wounded myself

aware of how some people responded to my ear

aware that if Jewish it would keep me out of rabbinate

also aware that wounded healer teaches from empathy

not authority

So I spoke up about my confusion

not qualified for such work

if UUA wanted us to retrain congs,

should train us how to do it

“would you help me get across”

changed tone of meeting

later accused of wisdom

wisdom certainly to know water was too deep for me

I needed help

two weeks ago, updated version of same conundrum

joint meeting of UU ministers and religious educators

Paula Cole-Jones

diversity and anti-racism work in congregations

involved process, lots of newsprint

how are we doing at welcoming, inviting diversity?

Defending status quo?

Studying the question?

Risking new ideas and behaviors?

Have we reached point of learning to listen?

Listening a higher level skill

advanced stage of cong development

stop talking and learn to listen to voices

of marginalized and oppressed

stop selling ourselves as the answer

begin to realize that we have to learn to live the question

how deep is the water?

How do we get across?

Who can help us?

Stop behaving like camel

learn humility of mouse again, find myself at a loss

don’t quite know how to set it up

eagle and egg question

how do we get close enough to marginalized

to ask them how we might serve them?

Survey won’t help

because I don’t even know what questions to ask

pretty sure wouldn’t understand answers without conversation

some questions I would start with:

- what feeds your soul?

- what do you need music to do?

- what does your body want to do in worship?

- how should a place of worship look?

- feel?

- smell?

- What would help you feel included?

- considered?

- respected?

- honored?

-what conversation should ministers be having with cong during worship?

- where is your pain, how can we help you endure it,

cleanse it?

transcend it?

-where is your joy? How can we help you express it?

Share it?

Spread it around?

Where do you feel need to grow?

- want to grow?

Feel growth being thrust upon you?

How can we help?

- how can we best challenge you?

- how can you best challenge us?

- what does justice feel like in your world? Questions whose depth we have only begun to sound

need to try being an ear

learn the humility of mouse, silence of eagle

hear the wolf in its hunger

hear the moods of the river

hear the wind

(answer is blowing in wind)

and discover new way of being

where paul simon’s song is relevant

silence not place of learning as we now use it

but place of oblivion

where all the disturbing questions disappear

defense against psychic pain

great well that absorbs anxieties, despair, helplessness

nagging doubts

“Silence like a cancer grows”

can’t disappear into silence

but enter it in order to learn

not shut out, but listen

to what people are not saying

to hungers that drive them

hungers of the wolf

hungers of the oppressed

hungers of the dispossessed

hungers of the hopeless

answer is blowing in the wind

when we can hear the wind

we will fly

Stewardship Story – What Kind Is It?

A man was telling his neighbor, "I just bought a new hearing aide. It cost me $4,000, but it's state of the art. All my hearing problems are over."

"That's great," answered the neighbor. "What kind is it?"

"Twelve-thirty."

Spoken Benediction

As we experience fear, let us look at the causes of fear within ourselves. As we feel pain, let us examine that within us which could cause pain. As we sense doubt, let us be aware of the ways in which our own knowledge seems unfulfilled. As we feel concern, let us explore our own involvement. As we encounter another, let us seek those things we share in common. As we seek love, let us know love for ourselves. – Fred Keip