Please join us in the virtual world of Second Life each Sunday at 2pm Pacific/ 5pm Eastern time. Download the interface at Secondlife.com, create your avatar, and join us at Sunshine Cathedral.
Call to Worship
This is the day our God has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!
Opening Prayer
Eternal One, remind us that whatever we do to others we do to ourselves. When we are judgmental and angry with another we damage our very souls. Teach us your way of love and keep our minds firmly fixed on sharing your love.
We ask this in your many names. Amen.
Lessons
The Wisdom of the Dalai Lama
“Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them.”
The wisdom of Brene Brown
“We are biologically, cognitively, physically, and spiritually wired to love, to be loved, and to belong. When those needs are not met, we don't function as we were meant to. We break. We fall apart. We numb. We ache. We hurt others.”
A Reading from the Gospel According to Matthew in Chapter 7
Ask, Seek, Knock
7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Parent in heaven give good gifts to those who ask!
12So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
Reflection by Rev. Dr. BK Hipsher
The great scholar Karen Armstrong is a (s)hero of mine. She has written on the great religions of the world in a way that is easy to read and understand by everyone. Simply reading her books is the equivalent of a graduate seminar in studying world religions. I was privileged to meet her and be her driver for a visit she made to Cambridge years ago and she is as lovely a person as she is brilliant as a scholar and teacher. But all of her work can be distilled into one simple quote, “Compassion… asks us to look into our own hearts, discover what gives us pain, and then refuse, under any circumstance whatsoever, to inflict that pain on anybody else.”
Karen Armstrong contends that compassion is THE central tenet in ALL the world’s religions. So that the basis of all religion is what Christians refer to as the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do to you.” And in the Jewish tradition it is often expressed as Rabbi Hillel said, "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn."
The Torah documents this principle in many instances:
“You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt”(Ex.22:20).
“You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the soul of the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Ex.23:9).
“The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Lev.19:34).
“You too must befriend the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Deut.10:19)
“You shall not hate an Egyptian, for you were stranger in his land” (Deut.23:8).
“Always remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore do I enjoin you to observe this commandment” (Deut. 24:22)
This week we saw one of the most heartbreaking examples of treating the stranger in the most egregious way any of us could imagine – chased, intimidated, even whipped with a leather strap by men on horseback for the crime of coming to the United States asking for asylum. Now please do not misunderstand me. I am not saying that immigration and economic migration is an easy issue to deal with or that the challenges are easy to solve. But the images of men on horses nearly trampling human beings is burned into my mind in a way I hope I never, ever forget.
Today I want to consider a completely selfish reason to treat others as we would like to be treated. The selfish reason to treat others as we would like to be treated is that when we violate this principle we do violence to others but I believe that we do equal or greater violence to OURSELVES. When I lose my temper and act like a jerk what that stupidity does to me is extreme, it is awful. What this violation of the Golden and Silver rule does is reminds me that I am capable of going against my own divine human nature.
Perhaps the worst violence the Christian tradition does to those of us who adhere to its better principles is the idea that human beings are born in sin. This is one of the greatest heresies of Christianity that has been codified as God’s truth for too long. The only thing anyone need do to prove to themselves how in error this doctrine is, is just to look at a newborn baby. There is no possible way any thinking and feeling human being can say that this tiny, helpless child is evil.
And our reading today from the wisdom of Brene Brown speaks of the truth of our own divinity and what causes us to stray from our best selves. She says, “We are biologically, cognitively, physically, and spiritually wired to love, to be loved, and to belong. When those needs are not met, we don't function as we were meant to. We break. We fall apart. We numb. We ache. We hurt others.”
So there’s the bottom line.... Do you want the world to be a kinder place? Be kind to those you meet. You want people to love each other? Love those who are acting in less than loving ways in your life. When you see someone in need ask them what you can do to meet their needs? Understand that when someone acts awful in your presence, that you need to say a prayer for them rather than reacting because there are needs in their lives that are not being met and that is causing them to act in unloving ways. Pray for them rather than reacting.
Let’s try it this week, just for one week. Let’s try to treat others the way we want to be treated and let’s do our best not to treat others in ways we would not want to be treated. Amen.
For a list of music suggested to meditate on for this service click the link below.
"So Unto Others ..." Sunday, September 16, 2021, Sunshine Cathedral of Second Life
Please join us in the virtual world of Second Life each Sunday at 2pm Pacific/ 5pm Eastern time. Download the interface at Secondlife.com, create your avatar, and join us at Sunshine Cathedral.
This is the day our God has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!
Opening Prayer
OpeningPrayer 20210926
Eternal One, remind us that whatever we do to others we do to ourselves. When we are judgmental and angry with another we damage our very souls. Teach us your way of love and keep our minds firmly fixed on sharing your love.
We ask this in your many names. Amen.
Lessons
Readings 20210926
The Wisdom of the Dalai Lama
“Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them.”
The wisdom of Brene Brown
“We are biologically, cognitively, physically, and spiritually wired to love, to be loved, and to belong. When those needs are not met, we don't function as we were meant to. We break. We fall apart. We numb. We ache. We hurt others.”
Gospel 20210926
A Reading from the Gospel According to Matthew in Chapter 7
Ask, Seek, Knock
7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Parent in heaven give good gifts to those who ask!
12So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
Reflection by Rev. Dr. BK Hipsher
Do Unto Others 20210926
The great scholar Karen Armstrong is a (s)hero of mine. She has written on the great religions of the world in a way that is easy to read and understand by everyone. Simply reading her books is the equivalent of a graduate seminar in studying world religions. I was privileged to meet her and be her driver for a visit she made to Cambridge years ago and she is as lovely a person as she is brilliant as a scholar and teacher. But all of her work can be distilled into one simple quote, “Compassion… asks us to look into our own hearts, discover what gives us pain, and then refuse, under any circumstance whatsoever, to inflict that pain on anybody else.”
Karen Armstrong contends that compassion is THE central tenet in ALL the world’s religions. So that the basis of all religion is what Christians refer to as the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do to you.” And in the Jewish tradition it is often expressed as Rabbi Hillel said, "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn."
The Torah documents this principle in many instances:
“You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt”(Ex.22:20).
“You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the soul of the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Ex.23:9).
“The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Lev.19:34).
“You too must befriend the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Deut.10:19)
“You shall not hate an Egyptian, for you were stranger in his land” (Deut.23:8).
“Always remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore do I enjoin you to observe this commandment” (Deut. 24:22)
This week we saw one of the most heartbreaking examples of treating the stranger in the most egregious way any of us could imagine – chased, intimidated, even whipped with a leather strap by men on horseback for the crime of coming to the United States asking for asylum. Now please do not misunderstand me. I am not saying that immigration and economic migration is an easy issue to deal with or that the challenges are easy to solve. But the images of men on horses nearly trampling human beings is burned into my mind in a way I hope I never, ever forget.
Today I want to consider a completely selfish reason to treat others as we would like to be treated. The selfish reason to treat others as we would like to be treated is that when we violate this principle we do violence to others but I believe that we do equal or greater violence to OURSELVES. When I lose my temper and act like a jerk what that stupidity does to me is extreme, it is awful. What this violation of the Golden and Silver rule does is reminds me that I am capable of going against my own divine human nature.
Perhaps the worst violence the Christian tradition does to those of us who adhere to its better principles is the idea that human beings are born in sin. This is one of the greatest heresies of Christianity that has been codified as God’s truth for too long. The only thing anyone need do to prove to themselves how in error this doctrine is, is just to look at a newborn baby. There is no possible way any thinking and feeling human being can say that this tiny, helpless child is evil.
And our reading today from the wisdom of Brene Brown speaks of the truth of our own divinity and what causes us to stray from our best selves. She says, “We are biologically, cognitively, physically, and spiritually wired to love, to be loved, and to belong. When those needs are not met, we don't function as we were meant to. We break. We fall apart. We numb. We ache. We hurt others.”
So there’s the bottom line.... Do you want the world to be a kinder place? Be kind to those you meet. You want people to love each other? Love those who are acting in less than loving ways in your life. When you see someone in need ask them what you can do to meet their needs? Understand that when someone acts awful in your presence, that you need to say a prayer for them rather than reacting because there are needs in their lives that are not being met and that is causing them to act in unloving ways. Pray for them rather than reacting.
Let’s try it this week, just for one week. Let’s try to treat others the way we want to be treated and let’s do our best not to treat others in ways we would not want to be treated. Amen.
For a list of music suggested to meditate on for this service click the link below.
Download SL20210926
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