Yes, I do realize it has been  a year since I have posted. Understood. And I am sorry to any people who actually read this, but I am bad a keeping up on things.

But, on another note, I did accomplish something of note reccently. I did a sermon/ service for my church. I arranged the whole thing, and most people said they liked it, which is always a self esteem booster. My service was on freedom, which usually ends in American’s griping about the stuff we don’t have, not the freedoms we do have, but my service was more positive, about freedoms we have and how we should appriciate them more.

It only lasted about 45 minutes, short of the one hour mark sadly. But even those 45 minutes were a lot of work. Also, all the hymns and readings not posted are in the UU hymnal, Singing In the Living tradition.

Here’s the service.

PRELUDE
I’m on My Way

WELCOME AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

CALL TO WORSHIP AND CHALICE LIGHTING -Owen
In lighting our candles, we enter into the spirit of this community with love and charity for all humanity.
We draw together with reverence, faith and thanksgiving,
Accepting the company of all human souls for our comfort.
HYMN
Oh I woke up this morning #153
OFFERING WORDS AND TIME OF GREETING
In the future days which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.
The first is freedom of speech and expression–everywhere in the world.
The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way–everywhere in the world.
The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants–everywhere in the world.
The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor–anywhere in the world.
That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation.
HYMN
Oh I wish I knew how #151
PRAYER AND MEDITATION
For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.
Nelson Mandela (1918 – )
MUSICAL INTERLUDE
This Land is your Land
READING-
Freedom 590
HOMILY

HYMN
We are Builiding a New Way #1017
BENEDICTION
May we be doers of the word, and not hearers only,
For to hear without doing is to deceive our own selves.
It is merely to behold our faces in a mirror, and go on our spearate ways, and straightaway forget what manner of person we are.
But whosoever looks into the perfect law of liberty, and continues therein;
We shall not be forgetful hearers, we shall be doers of the work;
We shall be blessed in our deeds; we shall be blessed in all we do.

 

And the sermon/Homily

Freedom has always been a big part of America. The idealists of our nation have always had freedom at the top of their lists, a justification for wars and political moves, but to UU’s it has always been far more important, a very basis of our religion itself, not just reasoning for far off wars. Without freedom, Unitarianism wouldn’t be what it is now. It is part of our core value and core beliefs. Some of the most famous Unitarians are famous because of their fight for freedom, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin.
Though they are long dead, their lives and work effect every part of us, from the way our country is run to the way our church acts, which  for the most part involves community outreach in our area and all over the world.
Thanks to the actions of these founding fathers, many of us haven’t had to work for freedom for ourselves or in our own communities for years, though UUs still usually do, reaching out for rights that still need to be achieved, such as gay marriage. But still, we reach out to other places far away, it might be because of the freedoms we appreciate as Americans, but it is much more likely it is because we are UUs and we reach out to anyone we can to help.
We send aid to our sister church, so their children have the freedom of more choices, to go school and to be able to feed their families. We send letters and protests to leaders to share our opinion. All vital parts of being a Unitarian, but an even more vital part of being an American citizen.
As American citizens, we don’t even recognize the freedoms we have until we really think about it. We’re much more likely, to gripe about the freedoms we don’t have. We aren’t allowed to go 35 down the street, we aren’t allowed to stay out past 11, we aren’t allowed to just not work on Fridays. But there are so many little things we are allowed to do that make the biggest difference. I can walk down the street alone with out a veil covering my face. I can tell a congressman I just don’t like him very much. My school paper can have a story about birth control in it.

The Kirkwood High School newspaper is where I’ve had a lot of encounters with freedom. We’ve done a few articles about things like pregnancy and depression, and even thought it might not be the most positive thing to put in a school newspaper, it is something true. Though our school district might not like these stories they don’t tell us to sacrifice our rights and not publish it. Not that they don’t have the legal right to. In a Hazelwood based Supreme Court case in the 80s, school administrators were given the right to preview and reject what students publish in their newspapers. A few states have overturned this, but Missouri is sadly not one of them. Our school doesn’t practice it, but with a new superintendent, there is a small chance we might forfeit this.

In one letter to the editor, we had someone write a letter so against gay rights, that in response we had three letters written back, at least two anonymous, not to mention the letter being the talk of the hallways. Most of the staff, me included, didn’t agree with the letter, But we published it. They had the right, the freedom to share their opinion, and we weren’t planning on stopping that. It was his freedom of speech, and to keep our own untarnished, we published his opinions.
The Newspaper isn’t the only place I have experienced freedom in my own life. I am allowed to read whatever books I want, even though someone might think they are inappropriate, or against their religion. Book burning is also a freedom, a way to show your opinion. And though I don’t like the idea of books being burned at all, I wouldn’t stop one, in the same way I hope I wouldn’t be stopped from reading a controversial book.
Like many other parts of America, freedom is something we have to work for. Unitarian’s alone take part in protest for anything you can imagine, using their freedom of assembly and petition, to give our say, and most of us very obviously value this right. We protest, write letters, donate time and money, all to show our freedom.
Our UU principles even state that we stand for democracy and liberty, and if those two don’t come close to freedom, I don’t know what does. It is part of our mission statement and part of who we are religiously.
My view on freedom might be different than the average person though. I was raised UU, unlike many who find themselves here now. Because of that, I might think differently about freedom and democracy than other teenagers, even American teenagers, those who have never experienced anything else. Thinking about the things we have as Americans is hard for us, especially things we can’t touch. It isn’t something we’re thankful for daily, or even register on a normal day, just a fact to us, except when we’re being self righteous and say something like “It’s a free country!”
What does that even mean? Well, besides what we say when we’re demanding to do things we shouldn’t. To me it’s lately come to mean more. I get to drive through the streets, and though I can’t go to fast, or drive more than one friend in my car, but I am allowed to drive, to go where I want to go, and I constantly think in a few years about my freedom to vote. Freedom being the key word. I can choose to go and vote, or I can choose not to. It doesn’t matter to the government, but hopefully it should matter to me.
I have to admit though, freedom isn’t always something I am consciously thankful for. It’s not something I wake up thinking, not like “I’m hungry” or “five more minutes”. Its one of those thoughts that come later, as you tell someone you don’t like their outfit or that you’ll be going to your church later that you think that you are exercising  “Freedom of speech” or “freedom of religion”. It’s a happy feeling, knowing that you have truly exercised your constitutional rights today.  Unfortunately, most of us don’t think of it.
Even on the forth of July, yesterday, freedom isn’t the first thing to come to mind. It comes somewhere after cook outs and fireworks, even though its the whole reason we have the holiday. We might even sing the national anthem or watch veterans march by, but freedom doesn’t come to mind.
That might be an inherent part of freedom. You never really think about it, its just a fact. But when its taken away or you have to fight for it, it becomes much more valuable. Those who’ve never truly had it also probably appreciate the idea of freedom much more than we do. They dream about it, desire it, think about it, and maybe some even obsess. But we just take it for granted, just another thing on that long list.
Though, the more we work for freedom, not even for ourselves, but for anyone, the more we appreciate it. Those of us who help in the fight for gay rights or the right for women to go to school have a better sense of what it means for us to have freedom. Not only the freedom of speech and press, but the freedom to go to school, the freedom to marry who you want to. Things that don’t even register to us until we join the fight to get what ever it is.
Then after we have achieved our goal do we really realize how good we have it. And all we really need to do is think about it a bit more. How glad we are we have it. That we do have free speech, and we do have the right to petition. It’s why our country and even our religion is the way it is today.