I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free: An Exploration of the Yearnings of Women

 I Wish I knew how it would feel to be free-- #151 in our UU hymnal was composed as a jazz piece by African American jazz musician Billy Taylor in the 50’s.  He said he wrote it for his daughter Kim.  That instrumental version was recorded in 1962 and I’ll play that at the end of the service as our traveling music.  Dick Dallas added lyrics to the song and it became a staple of the Civil Rights Movement when it came to the attention of many with the recording by Nina Simone in 1967 on her Silk and Soul album.  Others recorded it as well – but I think you’ll agree, no one sings it like Nina Simone.   When I first heard this song – and later read through the lyrics, I was deeply moved.  I connected with it – not as Civil Rights marchers did in the 60’s – but as a woman who had felt those emotions and who had advocated for others who felt those same yearnings. 

I’m not going to ask you to sing it – but I invite you to say these words with me – and either think of times you may have felt this way – or if you are blessed enough not to have felt this way, put yourself in someone else’s shoes.

The words on the slides are from our hymnal – minus the last repeated line of each verse.

I wish I knew how it would feel to be free.
I wish I could break all these chains holding me.
I wish I could say all the things I could say,
Say ‘em loud, say ‘em clear for the whole world to hear.

I wish I could share all the love in my heart,
remove all the bars that still keep us apart.
I wish you could know what it means to be me,
then you’d see and agree everyone should be free.

I wish I could give all I’m longing to give.
I wish I could live like I’m longing to live.
I wish I could do all the things I can do,
though I’m way overdue I’d be starting anew.

I wish I could be like a bird in the sky.
How sweet it would be if I found I could fly.
I’d soar to the sun and look down at the sea,
then I’d sing ‘cause I’d know how it feels to be free.

This is Women’s History month so – though many can connect with these yearnings for freedom, today’s focus will be on the struggle of women, the progress made by women, and yes, the challenges as well. 

We are in a Unitarian Universalist church this morning, so pardon me – for lifting up some important Unitarian and Universalist women in this exploration of yearnings of women.  This morning I’m going to share briefly about the struggles and the gifts given to us by three women who were contemporaries:  Julia Ward Howe, Clara Barton, and Francis Ellen Watkins Harper. I’m sharing these in order of birth.

Julia Ward Howe was a Unitarian who is best known for writing the Battle Hymn of the Republic.  She was encouraged by Unitarian minister James Freeman Clarke to write new lyrics for the melody he heard union soldiers singing about - John Brown’s body.  She is also known as one who called for the first celebration of Mother’s Day – not as a day to honor mothers – but as a time for mothers to come together to protest their sons being sent into needless wars.  But I want to share about the Julia Ward Howe that I see as the yearning feminist – hoping for a better day for herself and other women. 

Julia was born into a family of prominence in New York.  Her mother died when she was just five years old, and she came to be under the very strict constraints of her father.  While her brothers went to school, Julia learned at home and became a gifted writer and poet.  Her father kept a tight reign on her for he was very religious and thought women should be raised to be good wives – seen and not heard, etc. He died when Julia was 20 – and for a while, she retreated even further and became more religious and separated from society.  However, Julia did fall in love with and married another prominent man.  Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe had made a name for himself by doing work with deaf children. He admired Julia’s money more than he did her poetry – and was adamant that she not share her talent.  Her husband once wrote these words to her – that some might see as loving.  “I give you fair warning; I shall not help you out of the cocoon state at all, you are a sweet, pretty, little mortal & shall not be immortal if I can help it, this many a long year. I suppose you think you would look very beautiful emerging from the chrysalis state & I should be proud to see a pair of wings sprouting out from your white shoulders...but no such thing & I advise you not to show even a feather, for I shall unmercifully cut them off, to keep you prisoner in my arms, my own dear earthly wife, who is to go forth with me through this pleasant world.”

Though they worked hard to display a happy marriage, Julia’s letters and poetry portray a different story.  A colleague who studied these letters wrote:

“Julia's letters throughout her marriage reveal anger, bitterness, fear and guilt. She wanted to convince others and herself that she was happy, but she and (her husband) were caught in a constant cycle of argument, frustration, and misunderstanding. She wrote in one letter that men are foolish who ‘think a woman's happiness is ensured, when she becomes tied for life to one of them-God knows one's wedding day may be worse than the day of one's death-one's husband may prove anything but a comfort and support.’”

They did separate for a year – though this was a secret from most – and her husband indicated he would happily grant her a divorce, but he demanded that his two favorite children remain with him.  Julia did not agree to that demand, and they reconciled.  Before his death, she published a book of her poetry under another name – but it was easy for him and others to figure out that she was the author – and he became furious.  Julia once wrote to her sister, “My voice is frozen to silence, my poetry chained down by an icy bond of indifference.”

Sometimes, freedom comes with a death.  Julia’s husband was 18 years older and died in 1876.  The following day, Julia wrote in her journal, “My new life begins today.”  And, indeed, it did.  Julia became a prominent poet, author, abolitionist and suffragette.  And – she preached regularly at Unitarian and Universalist churches.  She traveled widely and shared her message of freedom for all. 

In preparation for a sermon about her many years ago, I read a novel by Julia Ward Howe that wasn’t published till 2004!  It was called The Hermaphrodite.  Do not let the old-fashioned terminology prevent you from reading this.  As she explored what we would now term the fluidity of gender and sexuality, I was amazed that I was reading this very compassionate – and yes – passionate novel written by a prominent woman from that time period. 

Julia Ward Howe yearned to be free and used her freedom to promote freedom for others.  She lived to be an old woman – a liberal and liberating crone.  And that “old bird” (as her brothers called her) is still teaching me. 

Clara Barton was a Universalist – best known, of course, as the founder of the American Red Cross.  Because of that – many folks think of her as a nurse, but she had no formal nursing training.  Barton did learn many nursing skills when she was young as the main caregiver for her brother David, who had sustained a severe head injury after falling off the roof of the family barn. Yet, Clara did not go for nursing training as an adult.  It seems that her father employed a phrenologist to examine Clara’s skull – and the bumps I suppose on her head led the phrenologist to determine that she should be a teacher, though she was painfully shy. 

She began her teaching career at the age of 18 and founded a school at her brother’s mill for the children of the workers at age 24.  She established the first free school in Bordentown, New Jersey in 1852, but resigned when she discovered that the school had hired a man at twice her salary, saying she would never work for less than a man.

In Washington, DC, she interviewed for the job of a patent clerk and got it – becoming the first woman to have such a job and she was paid the same salary – $1400 a year – not bad for back then – as the male clerks.  But then a new Secretary of the Interior who was opposed to women working demoted her to a copyist at a lower salary. 

When the Civil War broke out, she quit her job so that she could support the Union war effort.  She didn’t want to do it from behind the scenes though and begged to be sent to the fields.  And, indeed, she was on those battlefields using her nursing and caring skills throughout the war, earning her the nickname, “angel of the battlefield.” 

All of this work during the war took its toll on Barton’s health – so she went to Europe for “the cure.”  But it was not long before she was doing the same kind of nursing work there.  While in Switzerland, she learned of the International Red Cross.  After learning all she could from them, she was determined to return to America to begin an affiliated organization.  She had a hard time getting it going – but finally on May 21, 1881, the American Association of the Red Cross was formed; Barton was elected president in June. In 1882, the US joined the International Red Cross. Though her health problems continued, she remained with the Red Cross till 1904.  During this time, she also became a big supporter of the women’s suffrage movement.  This excerpt from a letter to her friend Frances Gage, written in 1870, reminds me of some of the arguments women have continually had to hear regarding their rights.  She wrote: “Woman should certainly have some voice in the matter of war, either affirmative or negative and the fact that she has not this should not be made the ground on which to deprive her of other privileges. She shan't say there shall be no war—and she shan't take any part in it when there is one, and because she don't take part in war, she must not vote, and because she can't vote, she has no voice in her government, and because she has no voice in her government, she isn't a citizen, and because she isn't a citizen, she has no rights, and because she has no rights, she must submit to wrongs, and because she submits to wrongs, she isn't anybody, and ‘what does she know about war—' and because she don't know anything about it, she mustn't say or do anything about it."

I hear you sister – and thank you for your determination.

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was blessed to be born to free parents in Baltimore in 1825. She held dual membership in Unitarian and African Methodist Episcopal churches in Philadelphia and believed the struggles for black Americans and women of all races were connected. Her works were largely forgotten until scholars and Unitarian Universalists resurrected her legacy.

Before her marriage, she was active on the lecture circuit – speaking on abolition and on women’s suffrage.  Some of her writing seemed to be of great interest to middle class white women, while she also wrote protest literature in the black liberation tradition. 

She dropped away from the lecture circuit and decreased her writing when she married Fenton Harper in 1860.  He was a widower with three children, and they had another child together.  Now I did not read the kinds of negative things about Fenton Harper that I read about Julia Ward Howe’s husband, but it is interesting that both women became more active in their writing and speaking after their husbands died.  Fenton Harper died just four years after their marriage, and that is when Francis EW Harper returned to the lecture circuit. 

You’ve heard the phrase – “Progress sometimes comes in a hearse.”  Well, it seems that for some women, freedom comes in a hearse.

In May 1866 Francis EW Harper delivered an address to the National Woman’s Rights Convention in New York, saying before thousands, “Justice is not fulfilled so long as woman is unequal before the law. We are all bound up together in one great bundle of humanity, and society cannot trample on the weakest and feeblest of its members without receiving the curse in its own soul.”

Harper’s works are still being read and lifted up by feminists, scholars, and of course, Unitarian Universalists. 

My friend Dr. Leon Spencer shared with me that he attended with other Black UUs the dedication of a new grave marker for Harper in 1992.  Here is the quote written by Harper that is on it: “I ask no monument proud and high, to arrest the gaze of the passers by; all that my yearning spirit craves, is bury me not in the land of slaves.”

Dr. Spencer told me there were two reasons for them creating and giving a new gravestone – 1st, the old one was unreadable – as happens with time, and 2nd, they wanted to let folks know that she was a Unitarian! 

Here are two other quotes from Harper that are inspirational for us at this time and place.

"We want more soul, a higher cultivation of all spiritual faculties. We need more unselfishness, earnestness, and integrity. We need men and women whose hearts are the homes of high and lofty enthusiasm and a noble devotion to the cause of emancipation, who are ready and willing to lay time, talent, and money on the altar of universal freedom."

 “There is light beyond the darkness, joy beyond the present pain . . . the shadows bear a promise of a brighter coming day.”

I am proud that we have women like this in our history.  None of them lived to see women get the vote – but they continued working for good into their old age. This is an inspiration for me.  Just as Nina Simone was able to change the lyrics --- and say she finally knew what it was like to be free, we need to persevere through these difficult times when freedoms and rights are being trampled. 

Sometimes, we do not know what to do. What choices should we make in this struggle?  But that does not mean that we should do nothing.  So, I want to close with words – not from a UU woman in our history – but to let you know we UU women are still writing and preaching and trying to make a difference - I want to share an excerpt from a poem by a living UU woman and colleague whose poetry gives me constant encouragement – Lynn Ungar.  Here is what she says about choices we must make:

Every choice will

wound someone, heal someone,

build a wall and open a conversation.

Things will always happen

that you can’t foresee.

But you have to choose.

It’s all we have—that little rudder

that we employ in the midst

of all the eddies and rapids,

the current that pulls us

inexorably toward the sea.

The fact that you are swept along

by the river is no excuse.

Watch where you are going.

Lean in toward what you love.

When in doubt, tell the truth.

 

May it be so- beloveds!

 

 

 

 

 

The Passing of Love Notes (Double Meaning Intended)

 

The Passing of Love Notes (Double Meaning intended)

Roses are red, Violets are blue, Sugar is sweet, and So are YOU!

Now the older folks here may remember passing notes like that in Study Hall – or maybe even in class or church – heaven forbid.  We passed love notes – and other notes as well, of course.  But I suppose the passing of love notes is not done among the young folks anymore.  That practice has, indeed, passed.  Now they slip their phones out and text little heart emojis.

Some of us believe we miss so much from communication that is by texting and emailing and such.  And yet, I know personally that you can develop strong feelings and emotions through the written word – no matter how it is conveyed.

Love letters have been written and shared for as long as writing has been a thing.  Many were romantic – some erotic even – but some were about that bigger kind of love that we lift up here in church, sometimes referred to as Universal Love, or Agape Love, or God’s love.  Thankfully – those letters have been passed as well, passed down to us so that we may learn of the wonders of love.

These love notes or love letters have not passed away.  We have them today.  And since this month includes Valentine’s Day- which honors St. Valentine, who wrote a letter to the jailer’s daughter before his execution and signed it “Your Valentine” – I decided to share and explore some  love letters with you today.

The first is one that is familiar to us all.  If you haven’t heard it at church, you’ve heard it at weddings.  Though it’s often shared at weddings, it is not about marriage – the author, Paul of Tarsus, was not really in favor of marriage, unless you just couldn’t help yourself from sinning without it.  Now there is much writing attributed to Paul that I take issue with – but he really was progressive and insightful about some things – especially if you consider the context of his culture and his upbringing, etc.  This passage in his letter to the Corinthians is one that I cherish.  Paul writes:

13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³ If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,but have not love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶ it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸ Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. ¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. ¹² For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

¹³ So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is Love.

I think I could preach five or six sermons on that passage – and maybe one day I will.  For today, though, I will let Paul’s words just speak for themselves.

The second love letter that I want to share with you was SAID to be among 1400 letters that Einstein left to the Hebrew University, with orders not to publish their contents until two decades after his death.  This letter from Einstein to his daughter started popping up on the internet quite a while back.  There is no evidence that Einstein wrote this letter – and in fact – he was not a good father according to any evidence there is.  This daughter Liesel did exist – but she was conceived out of wedlock before he and his wife married – and was left for her maternal grandparents to raise or was adopted.  There is some indication that she may have died when she was two.  But I do like this letter.  It must have been fabricated by someone trying to get into an old Einstein’s head – and imagining that he may have changed in terms of his love for this daughter and wanted to prove the power of Universal Love.  And perhaps for now – we can do that as well.  Here is the letter attributed to Einstein – written to his daughter Liesel.

"When I proposed the theory of relativity, very few understood me, and what I will reveal now to transmit includes and governs all others, and is even behind any phenomenon operating in the universe and has not yet been identified by us. This universal force is LOVE.

When scientists looked for a unified theory of the universe they forgot the most powerful unseen force. Love is Light, that enlightens those who give and receive it. Love is gravity, because it makes some people feel attracted to others. Love is power, because it multiplies the best we have, and allows humanity not to be extinguished in their blind selfishness. Love unfolds and reveals. For love we live and die. Love is God and God is Love.

This force explains everything and gives meaning to life. This is the variable that we have ignored for too long, maybe because we are afraid of love because it is the only energy in the universe that man has not learned to drive at will. To give visibility to love, I made a simple substitution in my most famous equation. If instead of E = mc2, we accept that the energy to heal the world can be obtained through love multiplied by the speed of light squared, we arrive at the conclusion that love is the most powerful force there is, because it has no limits.

After the failure of humanity in the use and control of the other forces of the universe that have turned against us, it is urgent that we nourish ourselves with another kind of energy… If we want our species to survive, if we are to find meaning in life, if we want to save the world and every sentient being that inhabits it, love is the one and only answer.

Perhaps we are not yet ready to make a bomb of love, a device powerful enough to entirely destroy the hate, selfishness and greed that devastate the planet. However, each individual carries within them a small but powerful generator of love whose energy is waiting to be released. When we learn to give and receive this universal energy, dear Lieserl, we will have affirmed that love conquers all, is able to transcend everything and anything, because love is the quintessence of life.

I deeply regret not having been able to express what is in my heart, which has quietly beaten for you all my life. Maybe it's too late to apologize, but as time is relative, I need to tell you that I love you and thanks to you I have reached the ultimate answer!"

The last letter I want to share is, for sure, a fictitious letter – but many truths are conveyed through the writings we label as fiction.  Just because it’s in a work of fiction – doesn’t mean it isn’t true.

This is an excerpt from one of Celie’s letters to God – of all things – in Alice Walker’s book, The Color Purple.  In this letter to God, Celie is sharing about a conversation she had with Shug about Shug’s concept of God and how it had changed.

“Shug a beautiful something, let me tell you. She frown a little, look out cross the yard, lean back in her chair, look like a big rose. She say, My first step from the old white man (god) was trees. Then air. Then birds. Then other people. But one day when I was sitting quiet and feeling like a motherless child, which I was, it come to me: that feeling of being part of everything, not separate at all. I knew that if I cut a tree, my arm would bleed. And I laughed and I cried and I run all around the house. I knew just what it was. In fact, when it happen, you can't miss it. It sort of like you know what, she say, grinning and rubbing high up on my thigh.

Shug! I say.

Oh, she say. God love all them feelings. That's some of the best stuff God did. And when you know God loves 'em you enjoys 'em a lot more. You can just relax, go with everything that's going, and praise God by liking what you like.

God don't think it dirty? I ast.

Naw, she say. God made it. Listen, God love everything you love? and a mess of stuff you don't. But more than anything else, God love admiration.

You saying God vain? I ast.

Naw, she say. Not vain, just wanting to share a good thing. I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it.

What it do when it pissed off? I ast.

Oh, it make something else. People think pleasing God is all God care about. But any fool living in the world can see it always trying to please us back.

Yeah? I say.

Yeah, she say. It always making little surprises and springing them on us when us least expect.

You mean it want to be loved, just like the bible say.

Yes, Celie, she say. Everything want to be loved. Us sing and dance, make faces and give flower bouquets, trying to be loved. You ever notice that trees do everything to git attention we do, except walk?”

Shug is right, y’all.  Everything wants to be loved – and everything needs to be loved. 

What do these three love letters  – have in common?

I see three common themes – here I go with a Trinity again, just can’t seem to get away from it – even in this Unitarian church.

The first is the Universality of Love.

Paul reminds us that:  ⁷ Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  He also says that Love never ends.  I truly believe that this is how we have eternal life – not by rising up to some new plane of existence in a city with gold streets and mansions.  My son Fred loved me and he fixed things for me that I still have – and he said things to me that I remember.  Fred and I disagreed on lots of things – but he loved me supremely and would do anything to protect me. Fred’s obituary says he died on December 27, 2019, but I still have his love with me.  And I try to pass it on to you. Love never ends.  It’s universal. 

Of course, the letter attributed to Einstein is all about the Universality of Love.  The author states that “love is able to transcend everything and anything, because love is the quintessence of life.”

And in Alice Walker’s fictitious letter from Celie to God – Shug explains that EVERYTHING wants to be loved.

The Second theme is the Power of Love!

Paul lifts up the power of love – especially as compared with our human nature without the power of love.  He says that “⁴ Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;^{[b] 6} it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”  That’s the power of love.

The ”Einstein” letter states it directly – even providing a formula for it.  The author says that Love is power, because it multiplies the best we have, and allows humanity not to be extinguished in their blind selfishness. Love unfolds and reveals. For love we live and die….”  The author further implores us of the necessity for using the power of love with these words:  “After the failure of humanity in the use and control of the other forces of the universe that have turned against us, it is urgent that we nourish ourselves with another kind of energy… If we want our species to survive, if we are to find meaning in life, if we want to save the world and every sentient being that inhabits it, love is the one and only answer. “

In Alice Walker’s fictitious letter, Shug hints at Love (even erotic love) being the best thing God did- and the power of loving what God loves.  She says “And when you know God loves 'em you enjoys 'em a lot more. You can just relax, go with everything that's going, and praise God by liking what you like.”

The third theme in this trinity of letters is Our need to focus on, give, and receive Love!

Paul says: If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

“Einstein” reveals this need by sharing his regret.  He says:  I deeply regret not having been able to express what is in my heart, which has quietly beaten for you all my life. Maybe it's too late to apologize, but as time is relative, I need to tell you that I love you and thanks to you I have reached the ultimate answer!"

And In Walker’s fictitious letter, Shug shares this about our need to love and desire to be loved: Yes, Celie, she say. Everything want to be loved. Us sing and dance, make faces and give flower bouquets, trying to be loved. You ever notice that trees do everything to git attention we do, except walk?”

My friend Laura Milner shared with me recently that as her mother approached the very end of her life – she held both her daughters’ hands.  Now Laura has shared with me that she and her sister are very different in many ways, religiously, socially, and politically.  But the thing their mom wanted them to see was the importance of sharing their love with one another – how much they need that – And the message she had for them in the end was this – - and I’m quoting Laura directly here -  “Mother said ‘Love is everything.’  That night and again in her final hours, she encouraged us to develop and nurture the kind of close relationship she enjoyed with her sister for more than 80 years. “ That was what was on Laura’s mother’s mind till the end – that Love is Everything! – and that they needed to love each other.  And they did get closer in those weeks at their mother’s bedside.  But we don’t need to wait, folks.  We may not have that opportunity.  We need to reach out now, today if possible.

The chorus of the song we shared earlier says it all – especially this year:  What the World needs now – is Love, sweet love.  It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of.  What the World needs now, is Love, sweet love – no, not just for one, but for everyone!

May it be so!

 

The Times They are a Changin'

 

 Acknowledgement:  The following message uses information from Wikipedia, Google, various articles and not error free) and my own memories, for what they’re worth. Additionally, I must also acknowledge that this message was written under the influence of Alka Seltzer Plus – Severe Cold Formula.

 

1964 ------------Still Grieving the assignation of President Kennedy, we witnessed the beginning of a war that was not called a war – not in 1964. 

President Johnson sig
ned the Gulf of Tonkin Act giving him all necessary actions including military force for this Vietnamese non-war in 64.

And there’s much more – including The Civil Rights Act of 1964 – changing political loyalties in the South – forevermore; or so it seemed.

King won the Peace Prize, China tested an Atomic Bomb, the Beatles invaded and brought some new songs.  Freedom Riding students from the North were slaughtered in the South, more rumblings in the streets, times were changin’, there’s no doubt.     Meanwhile, my heart was broken by my first boyfriend, I cried myself to sleep and thought the sorrow would never end.   And there was much more – in 1964 – I had a bad fall from my skateboard, and I still feel sore.     All that and much more – in 1964.

One of the happenings of 1964 was the release of an album by Bob Dylan including the title song = “The Times they are a Changin.”  He never released that song as a single in the US – but it was covered by many, many others including Peter, Paul, and Mary – and the one we heard by Burl Ives.

I thought this song would be a good sacred text for this message on MLK Sunday – our Justice Sunday.  It’s a prophetic text – for it still has much meaning for us today – maybe even more meaning today than in 1964, as we enter a time, like we’ve never faced before with so many in powerful positions who hold sway over future possibilities for us and others.  Does this prophet Dylan (previously known as Robert Zimmerman) have a message for us today. 

And why should we listen to someone like him anyway?  We couldn’t get tickets on Christmas Day – but on Boxing Day, Greg secured seats – separate but equal – in the Mall Theater in the suburbs of Chicago, so that he, his mom and me could see the movie – “A Complete Unknown.”  Of course, Dylan wasn’t unknown for long – especially after he sang this song.  Is Bob Dylan a prophet.  Well, that’s what I contend – or pretend – or portend, and I’ll extend that declaration and defend this proclamation with an exegesis of this text.  No, I did not say “EXIT Jesus!”  Jesus is always welcome here.  Exegesis is simply an examination and interpretation of text – often scripture, but not necessarily, for who is to define what is scripture?

I’ve selected three themes – a trinity if you will accept that construct in this Unitarian gathering – and will attempt to provide some explanation or expectation or revelation for those who hope to thrive or survive in 2025 --- and beyond, when hopefully MAGA (mawga)will be just a sad SAGA we share. 

The first theme of this song is the Inevitability of Change – reflected right there in the title.  As Unitarian Universalists, we lift up and revere change.  What does the T stand for in JETPIG – Transformation.  But we are thinking about positive change.  And even we don’t want everything to change. Unitarian Theodore Parker wrote a famous sermon that was somewhat controversial in his day called,“A Discourse on the Transient and Permanent in Christianity,” arguing that while the outward forms and traditions of Christianity may change over time, the core principles of love, justice and morality remain eternally true and unchanging --- and it’s these permanent aspects of our faith that matter.  A more recent UU ancestor Forest Church wrote about the American Creed outlined by Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence about those truths that should be self-evident and unchanging.  This is the creed that Martin Luther King, Jr. lifted up with his dream that this country might someday "rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed." 

We encourage changes that will more fully help us live up to these core values.  But the changes we fear this year may wash those values away if we are not ready to resist in a way. to persist in a way that will work. Those of us living in southeast Georgia have a recent realistic model to guide us.  We have recently had horrible hurricanes and storms come through.  And the sides of our roads still have mounds of trees that have fallen in its path.  But the storm didn’t get them all.  The trees that could bend and swerve and have flexibility made it through.  And that’s what we are going to have to do folks in the coming years.  We need to hold on as best we can to our values yet – find ways to bend and swerve, give and take, go over and under the waves of misinformation and misguided maneuvers till this storm has passed.  And we will do this with help from each other.

The second theme of Dylan’s song is Inclusivity – with Justice and Equity for all.  “Come gather round people wherever you roam and admit that the waters around you have grown.”We are not in a small pond of similar tadpoles anymore.  This is a teaming ocean with all kinds of creatures great and small.  “And you’d better start swimming or sink like a stone – for the times, they are a changin.”  This ain’t no private pool we are in folks.  We have to swim with others and help one another and love one another.  Dylan calls out to “Writers and Prophets who prophesize with their pens” as well as to politicians – great and small, all are called to hear his message.  It’s for everyone.

I’ve heard lots of folks talk about moving and trying to find somewhere that folks were more like us.  It can be hard to live here.  But there are enough of us, and of course, we have neighbors who have a very different view of this world.  Yet - We still have commonalities we can work on together. We just have to find each other and encourage one another. 

AND, and, and -  we have to find ways to be more interactive and work together with family members and neighbors who may not share all our values.  We need to seek them out and be willing to focus on the values we share as we move forward.  You know, we already reach across theological and political divides to feed the hungry.  And more recently, we are reaching out and working closely with our Catholic friends (Hail Mary)– who differ with us on many things but who are as concerned as we are about our immigrant families. 

The third theme – and maybe one that’s especially evident for me at this time in my life is that there is a generational shift that we have to accept and appreciate. 

Come mothers and fathers -
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'

Wow.  That’s hard for some of us who have been doing this work for so long. But we need to listen to that prophetic voice.  I’m trying to do just that.  I’m doing a “step down” retirement – first after 19 years as your minister – retiring from the Statesboro church in June of this year and plan to retire from the Brunswick church in June of 2027 (giving them a couple more years since I’m in my 11^th year with them).

We’ve got a lot of wise elders in our UU congregations – but some of us have realized that other folks may find different ways of doing things  - and that’s okay.  All of us need to learn to listen, and to know when to step forward and when it’s time to step back a little.  Now don’t get me wrong, we still greatly need all of our senior volunteers.  You are the ones with great knowledge and some time. But we sure do need to encourage and listen to younger folks and different folks as well. We will have to do that to overcome the difficulties that are ahead. 

Because – The Times they are a Changin’!  You see, me and Joe B. – we heard that melody – And are stepping back.  But that old DJ – scratched on through – shame on you. 

You may have noticed that the title of this message has two parts – the first was the title of this song, “The Times they are a changin’”and the second part was a question –Shall We Overcome? –an obvious reference to  “We shall overcome” that became a theme song for the Civil Rights Movement in the 60’s and 70’s.  And my response – of course – must be,  Yes we shall.  We MUST  Overcome.

The civil rights anthem, "We Shall Overcome", was adapted from a gospel song, by Highlander music director Zilphia Horton and Highlander musician Pete Seeger from the singing of striking tobacco factory workers from the 1945–1946 Charleston Cigar Factory strike. Shortly afterward, it was published by folk singer Pete Seeger in the People's Songs bulletin. And Pete himself taught it to many in both the labor movement and the Civil Rights Movement in the 50’s.  Highlander Guy Carawan taught the song to the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee – SNCC at their first convening at Shaw University – and the rest is history.  I thought since Pete Seeger had a primary role – not only in teaching and publishing this song – but also in promoting Bob Dylan and his music since he and Woody Guthrie heard his first songs – I thought we should bring in his voice to lead us in the call and response method that he used when he sang it at many of his concerts.  Now Pete was one of us – a Unitarian Universalist – and I actually heard him lead this song at a General Assembly many years ago.  You don’t need any words.  You just listen to Pete, and he’ll guide you along while we sing. I suggest that we stand to sing this song as we close this message – and since some of us have been sick, we won’t hold hands – but maybe we can lock arms and sway together.  Will you stand, lock arms with your neighbors, and join Pete and me and sing this sacred melody.

(Congregation sings)

May it be so.