5/24/09 Work
Happy early Memorial Day to
Valentine's Church of Awakening. I would like to introduce you all to our chalice the Flying Heart. The red heart, our passion, our compass in the world. The wings our soul, our ability to take us where we need to be. "You will know your Truth".
Reading- 721 "They are with us still"
In the struggles we choose for ourselves,
in the ways we move forward
in our lives and bring our world forward with us,
It is right to remember the names
of those who gave us strength in
this choice of living. It is right to
name the power of hard lives
well lived.
We share a history with those lives,
We belong to the same motion.
They too were strengthened by
what had gone before. They too
were drawn on by the vision of
what might come to be.
Those who lived before us, who
struggled for justice and suffered
injustice before us, have not melted
into the dust, and have not disappeared.
They are with us still.
The lives they have lived hold us steady.
Their words remind us and call us
back to ourselves. Their courage
and love evoke our own.
We, the living, carry them with us:
we are their voices, their hands and
their hearts.
We take them with us, and with
them choose the deeper path of
living.
(Let us name those who lend strength
in our lives.)
Kathleen Mctigue
Music "Tis a gift to be simple"
Sermon
This sermon started off as the topic Work in a Depressed economy, however it became mostly about Work. Maybe we will get to the economy somewhere down the line. The average part- and full-time workweek in 2005 was 39.2 hours per week, while the average full-time employee worked 42.9 hours per week.
Read more: "The American Workplace - How Much Time Do Americans Spend At Work?" - http://jobs.stateuniversity.com/pages/17/American-Workplace-HOW-MUCH-TIME-DO-AMERICANS-SPEND-AT-WORK.html#ixzz0GLegmqKH&A
The average American spends most of their time at work and that is not even counting the commuting time. Honestly, I cannot think of a single more influential area in ones life than a persons work. So we have this huge endeavor that takes the majority of our lives. But why do we do it? Why do we work? To put a roof over or heads? To make money? To feed us? To pay bills? Follow me for a second, so if it to put a roof over our head, to pay bills: We work to fulfill our basic needs. We work for money and money allows us to meet our needs for food, shelter etc. etc. Without food and shelter we would have a hard time living, so we work to live. But what drives You to live? Coming from a blue collar background, watched many, many people who got into a cycle where they would work to live and that work would barely, barely meet their needs and they would have to work harder and harder till it got switched around and they Lived to Work so they could Work to Live so they could Live to Work. And you can tell when that happens to someone. There is a dullness around their eyes and apathy in their demeanor. I mean what is the point, really what is the point of it all?
I want to thank Cheryle who owns this shop. She is the inspiration for this sermon. She said "The trick is to think what did people do before money." We bartered. In that barter, we got to exchange (with friends or tribe members, neighbors etc..) our services for things we needed. With a system of barter it was hard to lose track of our own value as human beings. Each individual had to produce something of value in order to get their needs met. The system of feedback was almost instanteous either others wanted what you were selling or they did not. If they did not you needed to find something else to produce. Back in the system of Barter you did not find individual going to school for years upon years upon years studying subjects that no one would pay them for doing what they had studied. Back in the Barter system you could not go into as much debt as our College Kids face today.The other thing that the barter system enabled was freedom. If you did not feel like producing one day, you did not have to. Today if you do not feel like producing at work, well, hope you boss doesn't catch you....We have worked ourselves into a tight corner in this society. We have lost sight of Ourselves? Are we just a bunch of Wage Slaves? Is money a necessary Evil? How do you view work? What motivates you to get out of bed each morning?
Music and basket “Money is cool. Think on it for a moment. It is crystallized energy. Ii is a thousand things, . For me today it is the cost to rent out this space. So I ask kindly for your donation. Give what you can, take if you need.
Introduction :this reading was monumental in
my own shifting perspective on work. I hope you
like it.
Reading- Kahil Gibran from The Prophet
Then a Ploughman said, Speak to us of
Work.
An he answered, saying:
You work that you may keeep pace with
the earth and the soul of the earth.
For to be idle is to become a stranger
unto the season, and to step out of life's
procession, that marches in majesty and
proud submission towards the infinite.
When you work you are a flute through
whose heart the whispering of the hours
turns to music.
Which of you would be a reed, dumb and
silent, when all else sings together in unison?
Always you have been told that work is
a curse and labour a misfortune.
But I say to you that when you work
you fulfill a part of earth's furthest dream,
assigned to you when that dream was born,
And in keeping yourself with labour you
are in truth loving life,
And to love life through labour is to be
intimate with life's inmost secrets.
Closing Words
Valentine's Church of Awakening. I would like to introduce you all to our chalice the Flying Heart. The red heart, our passion, our compass in the world. The wings our soul, our ability to take us where we need to be. "You will know your Truth".
Reading- 721 "They are with us still"
In the struggles we choose for ourselves,
in the ways we move forward
in our lives and bring our world forward with us,
It is right to remember the names
of those who gave us strength in
this choice of living. It is right to
name the power of hard lives
well lived.
We share a history with those lives,
We belong to the same motion.
They too were strengthened by
what had gone before. They too
were drawn on by the vision of
what might come to be.
Those who lived before us, who
struggled for justice and suffered
injustice before us, have not melted
into the dust, and have not disappeared.
They are with us still.
The lives they have lived hold us steady.
Their words remind us and call us
back to ourselves. Their courage
and love evoke our own.
We, the living, carry them with us:
we are their voices, their hands and
their hearts.
We take them with us, and with
them choose the deeper path of
living.
(Let us name those who lend strength
in our lives.)
Kathleen Mctigue
Music "Tis a gift to be simple"
Sermon
This sermon started off as the topic Work in a Depressed economy, however it became mostly about Work. Maybe we will get to the economy somewhere down the line. The average part- and full-time workweek in 2005 was 39.2 hours per week, while the average full-time employee worked 42.9 hours per week.
Read more: "The American Workplace - How Much Time Do Americans Spend At Work?" - http://jobs.stateuniversity.com/pages/17/American-Workplace-HOW-MUCH-TIME-DO-AMERICANS-SPEND-AT-WORK.html#ixzz0GLegmqKH&A
The average American spends most of their time at work and that is not even counting the commuting time. Honestly, I cannot think of a single more influential area in ones life than a persons work. So we have this huge endeavor that takes the majority of our lives. But why do we do it? Why do we work? To put a roof over or heads? To make money? To feed us? To pay bills? Follow me for a second, so if it to put a roof over our head, to pay bills: We work to fulfill our basic needs. We work for money and money allows us to meet our needs for food, shelter etc. etc. Without food and shelter we would have a hard time living, so we work to live. But what drives You to live? Coming from a blue collar background, watched many, many people who got into a cycle where they would work to live and that work would barely, barely meet their needs and they would have to work harder and harder till it got switched around and they Lived to Work so they could Work to Live so they could Live to Work. And you can tell when that happens to someone. There is a dullness around their eyes and apathy in their demeanor. I mean what is the point, really what is the point of it all?
I want to thank Cheryle who owns this shop. She is the inspiration for this sermon. She said "The trick is to think what did people do before money." We bartered. In that barter, we got to exchange (with friends or tribe members, neighbors etc..) our services for things we needed. With a system of barter it was hard to lose track of our own value as human beings. Each individual had to produce something of value in order to get their needs met. The system of feedback was almost instanteous either others wanted what you were selling or they did not. If they did not you needed to find something else to produce. Back in the system of Barter you did not find individual going to school for years upon years upon years studying subjects that no one would pay them for doing what they had studied. Back in the Barter system you could not go into as much debt as our College Kids face today.The other thing that the barter system enabled was freedom. If you did not feel like producing one day, you did not have to. Today if you do not feel like producing at work, well, hope you boss doesn't catch you....We have worked ourselves into a tight corner in this society. We have lost sight of Ourselves? Are we just a bunch of Wage Slaves? Is money a necessary Evil? How do you view work? What motivates you to get out of bed each morning?
Music and basket “Money is cool. Think on it for a moment. It is crystallized energy. Ii is a thousand things, . For me today it is the cost to rent out this space. So I ask kindly for your donation. Give what you can, take if you need.
Introduction :this reading was monumental in
my own shifting perspective on work. I hope you
like it.
Reading- Kahil Gibran from The Prophet
Then a Ploughman said, Speak to us of
Work.
An he answered, saying:
You work that you may keeep pace with
the earth and the soul of the earth.
For to be idle is to become a stranger
unto the season, and to step out of life's
procession, that marches in majesty and
proud submission towards the infinite.
When you work you are a flute through
whose heart the whispering of the hours
turns to music.
Which of you would be a reed, dumb and
silent, when all else sings together in unison?
Always you have been told that work is
a curse and labour a misfortune.
But I say to you that when you work
you fulfill a part of earth's furthest dream,
assigned to you when that dream was born,
And in keeping yourself with labour you
are in truth loving life,
And to love life through labour is to be
intimate with life's inmost secrets.
Closing Words
I will be here every Sunday 10 am. I hope to see you. On a closing note...
- This Church is my Field, this is my Dream. May you find succor and joy, energy and peace, Love and Happiness here. So mote it be.