Good Noontide, Howard Wigg, think, take Hawaii, hold green. I have two really, really distinguished guests today, Yoko Kazawa and Fengchuan Liu. And they are the best people I've ever heard about building community. And what do we mean by that? I'm in the energy efficiency field and I think that energy efficiency is the greatest thing since sliced bread all my colleagues do except we get pushed back. And often legislative session is going on, often we meet in the capital building and we say A and they say B and it's an adversarial process. And anybody in the audience can identify with that. Yoko and Fengchuan are the masters of avoiding adversarial relationships and building community and coming to mutual agreement. And so I so much am thankful for your being here. Today both are the employees of 30 meter telescope and all of us remember and still here to this day the opposition to the telescope. I was on the big island at the height of the protest movement and you go over a saddle road and there was actually a stoplight installed right at the peak where the road goes off to Marakea and hundreds of people swarming around. This was a massive protest and so the 30 meter people have a lot of work to do and they have hired the best of the best to do that work and build community. So welcome to you both and who wants to be the first speaker? I can just briefly introduce myself, Fengchuan Liu, the project manager for the last three plus years. I work at this in Hilo and moved from California and Yoko Kakazu. You want to say a few words? Thank you so much Howard for having us. It is such a great honor to be invited to your program. My name is Yoko Kakazu. I manage education and outreach programs for the 30 meter telescope international observatory. I joined TMT about two years ago and I've been working closely with our new project manager, Fengchuan Liu, in Hilo. My hello Yoko and my hello Howard and really very much appreciated for this opportunity to speak here. I'm a big believer of sustainability but today we want to talk about different aspects of sustainability. It's our understanding of sustainable astronomy. Yes, it is true that TMT, if everyone built, will be a very powerful scientific machine that will produce sustainable scientific discoveries that will revolutionize our understanding of our place within the universe and understanding the universe itself. However, the events in 2019 all taught us that by itself is not enough and the protest and the rest of what I said Howard mentioned really taught us that the approach we took leading up to 2019 was far from sustainable and it caused divisions and conflict within the community within among family and friends. We very much on behalf of our organization, we very much apologize for that. And since then, since 2019, we have fundamentally changed our approach to community engagement. This is not a public relations approach. It is a fundamental change from what we believe to the sustained TMT as part of the astronomy community. We understand that ultimately the decision on the future of TMT, our T-arrest with the Hawaii and especially the native Hawaii community, we respect that fact. We also believe that it's our kuleana, it's our responsibility to learn from our past mistakes, to do what is right for the community, to help heal the visions and to build long-term trust relationship in Hawaii where it says seven generations and we want to contribute to a better future for everyone in Hawaii, especially those in underserved and that is how we want to contribute to a sustainable astronomy. And I want to say from the astronomy point of view in terms of the next generation, large telescopes, this is the optimal telescope in the way that our eyes can see. And we're not alone. European nations are building a 39-meter telescope in Chile in the southern hemisphere and nearby there's another US-led effort, a coalition that's building a 24, 25-meter telescope in Chile. And TMT, the 30-meter telescope, is an only large telescope, a future large telescope in the northern hemisphere. And we have combined our efforts together between TMT, GMG, as a US combined effort and 16 National Science Foundation investment so that the astronomers in the US can have access to both the north and the southern skies. This is on the pop, yes. Go ahead. Well, let me jump in for a minute because I loved your statement to build trust. I've read a couple of books written by Navy SEALs, Navy SEALs, the toughest, toughest military people in all of the US, maybe in the whole world. And when you get through with a book and you ask what this was all about, why are they so effective as a team? There's all this chaos, this fire, noise, everything going on around them and they work as a team. The basic reason is they have worked together and gone through adversarial situations so long that they build trust among one another. In the roughest of times, they know that this guy is going to do this, this guy is going to do this and we're going to win the battle. So I love that phrase, build trust. Thank you. And it is absolutely essential, we're learning. And if I could mention that from the get-go, TMT actually understands the monarchy is a very special place and we want to lower the profile of the observatory and we have designed the observatories even though the mirror itself is three and a half times the size of, for example, existing telescopes or Gemini. The profile of the structure is only about 20 to 30 percent taller and it's smaller than the other two large telescopes. And recently there was a few, a couple of years ago, there was a National Academy run every 10 years or so. They run a survey to have the best astronomy minds together to rank the project that's the most important for astronomy, both in space and ground. TMT and GMT together as a combined effort was ranked number one on the ground based project. And so this allows National Science Foundation a chance, an opportunity to look into TMT and possibly invest in TMT. I want to say that last year we received six and a half million dollars from National Science Foundation, but this is not a commitment to construction. It is not a commitment to future funding. It is an interim effort to support a design effort. The future commitment, if any, by NSF. We don't want to speak for NSF, but our understanding is that a future commitment would have to rely on multiple things. One is to make sure they fully review the project, every aspect of the project. Another important aspect is they complete the federal version of the environmental impact statement, including the cultural consultation or the so-called Section 106 process. Meanwhile, I would say we have all benefit from the tech technology, both the 30-meter telescope and the 39-meter telescope, and also the one in space, you probably have all heard, the James Webb Space Telescope, JWST. We've all used the technology, Keck material, which puts the segments mirrors together and makes them perform as monolithic. TMT is three times the diameter of Keck, nine times the collecting area, but when you look at the real important thing, which is to identify and detect the very faint points, for instance, from far away in the universe, the TMT capable is 81 times more capable of Keck. So this is the type of revolutionary improvement. And let me point out, you mentioned money. If this is built, it's going to be a magnet for astronomers worldwide to come and participate in the viewing. And that brings dollars to the big island. These are highly paid people.  And the existence of this meter or telescope, if it happens, is in itself going to bring employment. It'll be local people will have a good job, sir. Thank you, Howard. This is actually, it's a good segue. We want to cut carbon footprint. So we actually are actively trying to reduce travel to be sustainable. We also want to stay in regular hotels, not necessarily regular hotels, but we contribute to the local economy more than just being here, traveling over here. We are in the process of converting a Hilo facility to actually bring actual works to Hilo. We need to build several hundreds of these segments to put together a certain meter telescope. And we are in the process of doing that assembly here in Hilo. Higher local workforce, local students giving opportunities and then contribute in a meaningful way to local economy. And this, we're doing this without any condition, precondition. We believe this is the right thing to do and we need to do that. So you're bringing young people up also involving them and saying, this is the prospect. Yeah, and we look forward to a new Hilo farm, you call on the digital activities. We'll work with schools, young people, but even for this effort, building astronomy instruments here, we are working with UH Hilo, with UH, IFA here, with college, how to work together our workforce and students training. So we have actively in the last three years or so, practically reach out to hundreds of people. We talk to our own people who are supporters and people in the middle, but we proactively reach out to the people who actually protest against. We've talked to many hundreds of them. And I would say every conversation ends much better than it starts. This is a great way to, in a private setting, in a general conversation, to really understand and learn the true opinions from both sides and to understand what mistakes we made, how we can do the right thing together, what the community generally care, how we can work on the future together for the long term. None of what we do is for short term. So as my summary, I will start it to you, Ko. Sure. Well, thank you for all the wonderful speech, Fintuan. I would like to re-emphasize the major changes that took place within the TMD organization over the last few years, the massive protests in 2019. And in fact, the COVID-19 pandemic gave us an opportunity to pause, reflect on our past and seek a new approach. So at TMT, we now have new leadership. Fintuan became project manager, and the first thing he did as a project manager was to move to Hilo Hawaii to better engage with the local communities, to listen to and learn from community members, in particular, those people who were traditionally opposed to projects. Now we have a new team based in Hilo Hawaii, and we are making new partnerships. So I manage education and workforce programs for the 30 meter telescope. And our theme is community partnership. All our programs are community driven, so they are led by our partners, community partners, collaborators and designed to meet the unique needs and interests of local community members through these grassroots dialogues with community members, in particular, those people who have traditionally opposed to projects. We actually realized that we do have a shared vision. We all want to create a better future for our keiki or our future generations. So with that in mind, we are co-creating programs to benefit our local community, in particular, keiki. And we have four categories in our education and workforce programs. The first one is K-12 education and workforce development programs. And the second one is culture-based learning. So we work with cultural practitioners and way-finding navigators, experts. And the third category is the environment protection and conservation. So we are working with Bona Kei Reforestation people, and we actively support their invasive weed pool activities, as well as the native bird, polyla, the endangered bird, a study of Mona Kei, and as Fenchuan said, we're really trying to cut down business troubles to reduce the CO2 carbon footprint for our earth. And all these programs, as I said, is led by our community partners. And regardless of the construction of TMT on Mona Kei, we are committed to do this because this is the right thing. This is the final thing to do for the community. So I want to emphasize this because this is so important. Regardless of the future of TMT on Mona Kei, we are committed to do the right thing for the community, for the future of our Keiki children. And ultimately, the decision of TMT on Mona Kei rests with Hawaii community and Native Hawaiian communities, not us. We are here to be a good neighbor, good citizen in Hawaii, and working together with our partners. And we are listening to and learning from community members every day. So if you have any questions or suggestions, we are willing to learn more and hear from you. You know, you brought something to mind in my work, namely, we had a strong opposition from the big industry here in Hawaii to one of our programs.  Are you opposed to that? Well, no, not really. And finally, we had dialogue long enough where they put in writing an email. This is what concerns us.  And we said, oh, we have no objection to that. We can change that language. So maybe this is a type of process that you folks are going through. Well, absolutely. I think in the past, there has not been enough dialogues with community members, in particular those people in rural areas and Hawaiian communities. We did not engage with these people. And so that was the issue we know. We recognize that. And this is why we are committed to talking to or listening to and learning from our community members. And this is the main reason when Trump moved to Hawaii over two years ago. Yeah, Howard, I want to pick up on that. It's a very good point. In fact, I stopped using the Freddie's supporters or opponents. And this was a regular thing a few years ago. And once it doesn't matter your position on this subject. And once we start talking, we start having genuine conversations and truly express our opinion. We find, always find out. We have much more in common and the areas that we differ. As you mentioned, Howard, we can work together on this. It's just not that we're not asking anybody to change position. It's just have a true understanding of how we feel about things, how we view things, how we value things. And we are equal humans. And we always find that we have a lot more in common than we are apart. Yeah, it's when you really start getting down down to the nitty gritty here. That's again, I give the example of you oppose the whole thing. And then when you start talking, start talking that opposition just shrinks and shrinks and shrinks. And then you say, oh, OK, now we can come together with this. Yeah, and I would not. You've had that experience many times, I imagine, already. Yeah. Yeah, I would add, everything starts with respect. When we sit down, we respect each other. And the conversation starts and is based on respect, mutual respect. It always leads to a better place. Yeah, you look at some of the big, huge issues that are causing the whole world problems right now, costing millions of dollars, costing thousands of lives. And I think it all boils down to respect. How can we respect one another? But yeah. So that's you guys are geniuses at that, I think. Yeah, no, we learn this from the conversations in the community. It's not. It's actually when it comes to the bottom line, it's actually very simple. It is so complicated and so complex. It is actually very simple. We're all humans. We want to respect each other. We want to do what's good for the community, for people on the islands. And that's a starting point and it's a long term. Yeah, another good example might be our presidential situation. Now, there's very little respect on this side, for that side, the vice versa. There's a lot of disrespect and it's pretty well tarried in our country apart right now. So we should multiply you guys by about a thousand times. And I'm afraid to do this. Thank you. Yuko, can you give any examples of meetings that you had where you started apart and came together, came together? I'm sure I would like to actually talk about some of the education backgrounds that we started with our community partners a few years ago. So as you know, the COVID-19 pandemic really impacted our students in Hawaii because there was no in-person teaching, everything was online. And a lot of the students, in fact, a lot of students in rural area even didn't have internet. So without internet, how can you take online classes? It's impossible, right? So the impact of COVID-19 was quite severe among students, in particular underserved students. So after the pandemic and when school started in-person teaching in 2021 full, we asked local school teachers, how can we assist students? And the answer was, well, come to school and help assist our students by providing tutoring assistance. So at TMT, we started going to schools, local schools every week. And it's been amazing experience. So this tutoring program is led by local teachers. We go there, assist students as community members. And it's been very successful for reducing the number of students failing multiple classes, but it's also helping us to understand, better understand the schools and students' real needs and interests and helping us to become a better communicator, better teacher and have a deeper sense of community. So the sense of community is critical for our work. And this is what we believe in TMT. And in the process, you're tutoring them, I guess in general ways, but you two are either scientists or almost scientists. And you're probably pointing the students to the fact that science could mean a whole lot to them in the future. If they take science courses, their future absolutely will be better. Yeah, a lot of students tell us, oh, gee, we didn't know how fun science is, how fun math is because once you get it, you get it.  So some of my students are now getting A plus and A. So she doesn't want to come to this tutoring program. And I miss her, but this is wonderful. And this is extremely rewarding for us. Yeah, yeah. It sets a light bulb off in their heads. Ah, there's a whole new world out there. And it is amazing to see them believing themselves, I can do this. And, you know, I can get A's and B's. It's an entirely live training, just watch. Yeah. Yeah, you do a whole paradigm shift, their self-image. Yeah. And it's science-based. Yeah. We very much appreciate such opportunities and contributing and also learning from such experience from your students. And we've just got a teeny little time left, a very brief question. Do you connect or point out that the Hawaiians who came here from Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands, they were great astronomers? They could not have made it here without knowledge of astronomy. Yes, absolutely. And in fact, we are working with a Polynesian wayfinding navigator. He grows for local students, and it's been such an honor for us. And I'm myself learning a lot about traditional wayfinding and navigation. And some of the concept between Kumalito and the cosmology, there's a lot in common as well. Well, on that very, very cheery note, we have run out of time. And Yuko and Finchuan, thank you so much. And again, this program will be archived. You can use it for educational purposes down the road here. And if I can find other opportunities for you to speak, I'm definitely going to offer them to you. So I'll have a hard time for this opportunity. Yeah, so I would wait code green. Bye bye and see you next time.


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Okay. Welcome back. Where are we? Okay. There we are. Great. We concluded with chapter four, the last class on why personal holiness and perfecting holiness. Sorry, this chapter, this class, we look into this chapter five titled why personal holiness, why personal holiness. This chapter is a little interesting in terms of how we're going to address it is simply by asking some very familiar questions. And we look at some of the answers that's mentioned. Okay. And you would have come across to some of these questions, or you might have these questions. Okay, but let's look at it. So, and I'd probably even let you answer to this question. Okay. First question. Why should a believer live a holy life if he is already saved and has his sins and has his sins forgiven? That's the question number one.  So what's the point? Why should he live a life of holiness? Anyone can answer. I think when we'll come to this forgiveness part, when I ask the Lord, forgive me, we are already having that repented mind. And when you're forgiven, we know the peace that comes from God. And why should we go back to that gain to that? Because we don't want there. That's right. I think this question is sorry. That's many times, but also, you know, in the recent decade and a half, at least in the last decade, in the last 10 years or so, there's been a huge emphasis on the grace of God and on his goodness, which is very important. Absolutely. Is he good 100%? There's no debate required at all. Is he gracious? Absolutely. Right. Excuse me. I'm so sorry. But then there's there are certain movements that's reason that's kind of manipulated, I would say his grace saying, Okay, you know what? You know, we've already been forgiven. God's grace is there. And so that's been used as a license to continue living in a life of sin. You understood. Okay. So that's been pretty evident across the world in certain teachings and all of that. God is good. No matter what you do, he's always good. And then there's this other extreme know if there's a good God, why is there evil in this world and all that, but that's very different. But for us to keep in mind, then Nina says, we are representing God on earth who is holiness personified. Yeah. Thank you, Nina. So why should a believer live a holy life if he's already saved and his sins are forgiven? So answer the states that sin affects our relationship with God. It affects our relationship with God. Now, the day again, I've said this so many times is the day at the minute, the second I give my life to Jesus, I am saved from the state of sin. Yes, that's the positional truth. I am saved. I was a sinner. I am justified. That means as a guilty person, imagine the court of law. Okay.  So I'll be the judge and say, Anand is the one who's sitting and standing on the, you know, what is that, whatever that is, box. Okay. He's on the stand guilty as guilty as charged. Right. He's been charged for theft and murder and whatnot. And so what should be the sentence? The punishment should be, I mean, whatever the punishment doesn't matter, but he should be punished, right? Because he's guilty. He should be sent to prison for X number of years, whatever. But Nina comes into the picture and says, no, I am paying the price. I'm paying the price for his crimes. And so because of the price that you paid, you know, he's debt free now. Isn't it? That means he's been justified. Why am I saying all of this is because now from being in the position of as a guilty person, his position, legal position has been changed to innocent. Yeah. And so similarly, when we accept Jesus Christ as a Lord and Savior, a legal position in the spiritual realm, in the kingdom of God, we are changed from a sinner to a saint. Right. From a sinner to a saint, a person who believes, who is no longer a sinner. That is the positional truth. Are you with me? Right. So we are no longer in the state of sin, but we still continue to live in this body. Right.  So after I give my life to Jesus, if I am pushed, I can commit murder. Right.   Right. Yes or no. So that's what it's talking about here, is that sin affects our relationship with God. Now your positional truth may not change. Right. Because you've given your life to God. We look into that in a little bit more deeper in just a minute. But what does relationship means? It's with God. It simply means it's your day to day walk with God. Day to day, walk with God. Now the distinct memory of me giving my life to Jesus, which I remember is the day that I got serious was I think November 11th of 2004 in a youth camp. November 11th, 2004 in a youth camp. There was a call clearly saying, okay, you've been living double standards life, lukewarm Christian. It's about time you get serious. So that night I gave my life to God explicitly inviting the Holy Spirit and giving my heart to God. That was 17. Now, and I believe that my legal standard position in God has changed from a sinner to a saint. Right. But that doesn't mean after that I have never committed acts of sin. I have. Are you with me? But during the phases when I was committing those acts of sin, it actually affected my relationship with God. My walk with Him. There were days where I would be like, okay, I don't want to lead worship. I don't want to go to church. I don't want to see anyone's face. I don't want to read the Bible. I don't want to feel, I don't feel like praying. Now we add the word feel to everything. No, I don't feel like reading the word. I don't feel like worshiping. I don't feel like going to church, etc, etc. What is happening is that your lifestyle of sin or if you're constantly living in the lifestyle of sin, it is going to affect your relationship with God and how you walk with Him and how He wants to walk with you. Understood. No. Look at one John chapter one verse six and seven. It says if we say that we have fellowship with Him.  What is it saying? You're lying. We lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship or relationship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son cleanses us from all sin. Okay. And you know some of the most popular verses that follows that verse is verse nine. One John one nine is if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Okay. So one John, it's a beautiful letter. It's all about love.  It's saying live a life of love, walk in the light and be true.  You know, we all go through that. We do some things that's what happens to all of us, isn't it? Yes or no? Hey, it happens to all of us and says just confess your sins. And if you do that, you're, he is faithful and just to forgive you. And then if you fast forward to one John chapter five, I talks about a brother in Christ who is constantly living in sin. It's, this, this epistle is only talking about this one thing, guys. Don't live in sin. Walk in love and be careful of habitual sin or continual sin. We're not going to go through the entire chapter or go through it when you can. But that's what this whole letter is all about is that if you continue to live in sin, habitual sin, and if you're not willing to change, it is going to affect your relationship with God. Are you with me? Okay. So sin, the first point to the question is sin affects our relationship with God. Therefore, we will do what we can to live a life of holiness. Second one, sin gives the enemy access. It says be angry and do not sin. Don't let the sun go down on your wrath nor give place to the devil. So what is it saying that if you continue to live in sin, if you don't confess, if you don't repent, repent is what? Having a change in mind, right? A complete shift, right? If that does not happen, you have given keys to the devil. You have opened the door. I say, please come in, take your seat, make yourself comfortable at home. Okay. So that's what, that's what the scriptures is inferring there is that sin gives the enemy access. Yeah. Then James chapter four was seven and eight. It says if our hands are not clean, if your heart's not pure, we cannot draw near to God. That's kind of a gist of what James is saying there. If your hands are not clean and your hearts are not pure, we cannot draw near to God. You know the sound that says who shall ascend to the hill of the Lord with those with clean hands and pure hearts? Why not clean hands and clean hearts? There's an, there's a distinction there and it's a very important one. So see, our hands are external, right? It can be, it's clean, but your thoughts needs to be purified. Your thoughts have to be pure, right?  A different translation has different things. We be pure and acceptable. And another translation says, let it be pleasing. Okay. So sin gives access to the enemy. And finally, sin cripples our effectiveness in ministry. 100% guys. We cannot live a life of hypocrisy and pretend and continue ministering, which is possible, 100% possible, right? Now I'm sitting here talking about the holiness. Do any of you know what I'm thinking about right now?  Do any of you know what I watched last night? By the way, I was sleeping guys, okay, but I'm just saying, but you see, you, you see the point, right? I can be in front of you, pretend like I can pretend very well where I'm put on a mask and talk on the subject of holiness. Oh, he's talking about holiness. He must be another level. Yeah. But on the high, on the other side, I could be living a life of double standards, right? I could go home and remove my mask. Right. Sin, it, it, it will eventually catch up to you. Sin will eventually come out. It will be exposed in the light. Are you with me? Right. So it is very essential that we consecrate ourselves, that we, you know, we do our part in living this life of holiness. Okay. Let's move on. Second question, understanding righteousness and holiness. Understanding righteousness and holiness. So a question here states, a believer is already righteous in Christ. That means our legal status has changed in the spiritual realm. We cannot be made any more acceptable to God. Then why should a believer live holy if we are already righteousness of God? Actually, the answer to that question is, it's like all in the first point, right? But two simple truths. What we've already been speaking about so much is when we talk about righteousness, it has two folds to it. One is your right standing with God. Okay. Yes.  He becomes your righteousness and you can stand before God blameless and holy and without blemish. That is the right standing before God, right? That's one fold. The second part of it is your holy living. Okay. Right standard is one thing and right living is the second, is the other part on the other side of the same coin of righteousness that we should say. Are you guys with me? Okay. So that's, that's the second question, which is kind of related to the first question and so is all the other questions. We look at, okay, so what are the rewards of personal holiness? What are the rewards you think is of the personal holiness?  I'm going to strive this, but just according to you, what do you think are the rewards? Okay, greater intimacy with the Lord, now greater communion. Okay. That's the reward, right? Okay. What else? Yeah, probably. No, I was about to say the intimacy with the Lord. Probably, can you say that again, please? I was about to say about having greater intimacy with the Lord. Right. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, that's what Prince also shared. So, yeah, I think we're all on the same page. The reward of personal holiness is, you know, one of the things in the previous question, it says, we cannot be made any more acceptable to God, right? In second question, it says, we cannot be made any more acceptable to God. Now, Bible says in Romans chapter five, it says, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, right? He died for us while I was yet a sinner. So, I didn't have to do anything. I didn't have to do anything for him to give his life for me and I can't do anything more for him to continue to love me. He's not going to love me any less or any more by me doing something, right? The cross is his ultimate, I love you for us. Yes or no? Okay. But we can live a certain way in our lives that would please him. Again, going back to the life of Moses, you know, he says, show me all ways that I may know you, that famous prayer that he makes in Exodus chapter 33, show me all ways that I may know you, right? And then we see that his prayer is answered in Psalm 103. Psalm 103 verse 7, it says, God showed his ways to Moses, sorry, God shows his acts or deeds to the people of Israel, but his ways to Moses, why is there a distinction? People of Israel did not have to do anything for God to show off, isn't it? But God yet did signs and wonders and everybody saw, you know, Manna falling from heaven, everything, water coming out of the rock. People of Israel didn't do anything. They just have to follow Moses and they just, and they were all complaining and murmuring along the way. But there is a certain way that Moses lived that pleased God. Yeah. Okay, how can a young man live his way is pure by living according, by living according to the Word of God, right? Time and time again. So I think this living life as commanded by Jesus is how we, you know, how we become, how we continue to walk in holiness. And that's a key reward is that intimacy with him increases. Okay, but let's look at the notes and see what it has to say there. Holiness, a key to being part of him, that's one of the rewards of personal holiness is, is we become part of him, or we are being part of him. In John chapter 13, where Jesus, you know, stoops down, takes a piece of cloth and a bucket of water and washes the feet of his disciples. Right? Sure, there's Jesus teaching about serving, all of that is happening there, but then let Peter, Peter being Peter, he says, Oh Lord, I'm not going to let you wash my feet. But what is Jesus's response to that? Peter is, Peter. So what is, what is it? What do you think Jesus is saying there? Is he referring only to the external action? No, isn't it? So it's like, Jesus is talking in layers over there.  How many of us remember the first miracle Jesus did as much, at least as I recorded in John chapter two, wedding of Canna, water into wine. Okay. Now, do you know in which that water was stored? Stone jars. What was the stone jars? Because stone jars, which was filled with water was, is what the water that was used was for cleansing. Like, you know, in the temple, which was followed, right? The water in those stone jars was set aside or set apart specifically for cleansing of their hands and feet. It was not just ordinary water. I mean, it was water that was set apart. That water was later turned into, and what does wine represent? Blood of Jesus. Are you with me? Right? And so that's what Jesus is saying. Allow me to wash you. And now it may just be the water. But in that he's Jesus is speaking to all of us in the future.  Okay. Cool. So holiness is a key for us to being part of him. And then holiness key to possessing our possessions. Living a life of holiness leads us or helps us or empowers us to possess what God has promised. Okay. That's why God commanded the people of Israel is like, when you go into the land of, to the promised land, land flowing with milk and honey, that is the promise, isn't it? That is the position God promised. But what he says is, don't get into the ways of the Canaanite. Don't worship their gods. Don't follow their ways. Be set apart. In other words, he's saying, don't compromise with their lifestyle. Chase them all away. That was the commandment, guys, is chase them all away. Chase the enemy away. But that's exactly not what they did. They did not do that. They compromised. They let the enemy stay. You see how the book of Judges start. It's saying that, okay, you know, although they chased away a few of them, there were a few of those land who just let them be in that land. They thought, okay, what threat are they going to be? No, we have our own land. We've come here. They are not going to be of any harm. A few years later, it's the same enemy that they compromised and allowed them to stay, later oppressed them. It began with oppressing them for seven years, 14, 40 years during the time of Samson. So what you allow to stay in your life or you compromise, if you allow a certain sin to live with you and saying, it's okay. No problem will eventually rule over you and it will hinder you from possessing what God has for you. Numbers chapter 25, just going slightly off, but it's very important. Numbers chapter 25 is a turning point in the history of Israel. It says that the sons of Israel committed sexual immorality with the women of Moab. I think it's right. Moab, no? Because there's so manyites, like I wonder which tribe it is. Moab, right? Okay. Yeah, 25 one. So this chapter is crucial in the history of Israel. Okay. By the way, Book of Numbers in Hebrew, it simply means in the wilderness, bar mit bar, in the wilderness. How it became numbers, I don't know, but because everything, while everything is changing, there's a certain generation that is going to pass away. And then there's a new generation that's coming after this chapter. It's super important. That's why the next chapter is titled as the second census. Okay, very crucial. So it's also off by saying, while Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women, the same bunch of people that they were not supposed to compromise with, that the God had commanded saying, do not be your. Don't you know that I have set yourself apart for myself? Now, see how it all started in verse two. Sexual immorality is like what happened, but how did it start? Who invited them to sacrifices to their gods? What is that? Worship. The people ate and bowed down before these gods. So Israel joined in worshipping the Baal of Pior. Baal was a very disgusting God, really. He was a God of fertility. Now, we can talk in depth about it, but it's not about it right now. So Israel joined in worship, the Baal of Pior and the Lord's anger burned against them. Now, you can read the rest of the chapter, but the point is they compromised. It all began with worship. So it comes like, hey, come worship our gods, worship with us. Let's go and offer our sacrifices. And the next thing you know, it's like, hey, guys, what's happening here, right? It's a huge impact in the history of Israel. The entire chapter is scary. Not very scary, but you get the point, right? So holiness empowers us to possess what God has promised for us. Okay, and holiness is profitable in all things. The next point. Holiness is profitable in all things. 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 7 to 8, verse 8 it says, for bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things. Godliness is profitable for all things, right? So it's simply saying that if you live a life of holiness, set apart and devouted to God, in every aspect of your life, you are going to see the hand of God. In every area of your life, you are going to see the hand of God. In every, in all your ways, you will see the hand of God, right? For example, your wife, your mother, so many other things that I do not know of. And in all those ways, you will see his hand in favor because you are pursuing holiness. Are you with me? Right? It's something beautiful that is written about Joseph in Genesis. It says that for the sake of Joseph, God blessed Potiphar's house. Joseph was living a life of holiness, but everyone around him was being blessed. It's there in the Bible, guys. It says for the sake of Joseph, God blessed Potiphar's house. It's not amazing, like just choosing holiness, pursuing him with a zeal, like that your heart would burn with the fire of holiness for him. It would impact everything else around you, not just you. Yes? Okay. You know with Psalm 22 verse 3, it says, he inhabits the praises of his people, right? It doesn't just mean that he's going to inhabit your praise. He inhabits the praiser as well. It consumes you because in the new covenant we are the sacrifice. Yeah. Okay. Holiness is the key to being a vessel of honor. So Paul is making it very clear that holiness is key to being a vessel of honor, a vessel that God can use. Again, every vessel in the tabernacle was inscribed saying holy unto the Lord, which was used for his purpose in his temple. And right now, he's saying we are the vessel of honor. And by living a life of holiness and godliness and righteousness, we become that vessel. Okay. Let's move fast forward. Holiness is a key to walking in spiritual authority. Holiness is a key to walking in spiritual authority. See, initially, in the first point, in the first answer, what did we see that your sinful lifestyle will affect your relationship with? Relationship with God, isn't it? And then here it says, holiness is the key to walking in spiritual authority. And then James 470 is saying, therefore, submit to God, this is the devil and he will flee from you. So we made this point so many times that you can live a life of double standards, a life of hypocrisy. On the day of judgment, you can stand before God and Jesus and say that Lord, do you not know that in your name we did this, this, this, X, Y and Z. Jesus was classic response to this. I do not know you. That means that know is simply, it's not knowledge. It's like, I don't share that intimate relationship. I can't recognize you is what you're saying. I can't recognize you. I do not know you. Right. And it's amazing how that is directly connected with our spiritual authority. But have you lived a life of complete submission to God? And holiness is key to Christlikeness. I want to encourage you to just go through all those passages because there's so many. And due to time constraint, I'm swifting through those. But these are all extremely important points and scriptures that's given to each question. Holiness is key to Christlikeness. And finally, we come to this fifth point that says how important are externals? How important are externals? So how important are external style of clothes we wear, makeup, jewelry, etc. to being holy? Not being holy. So not important at all. Let's move on. Yeah. Holiness is not based on your cosmetics. We've established that, right? It's based on our communion with the Lord. Yeah, it's based on our communion with Him, our fellowship with Him. Great. We've established that. Is there anything else that you want to share before we just continue the last point? Because I want to move to the section that says destroyers of personal holiness, everything that we've addressed and spoken of. What are the things that will destroy personal holiness? Now we've established, we've looked at a few questions. Why is it important? We've come to a conclusion saying that it is important that we live a life of holiness because there's so many rewards to it. Key to satisfied life, yeah. But what are those things? But there are things that will destroy a life of personal holiness, isn't it? Yeah. And so that's what the section is all about. The first one on the list, hypocrisy. You know, in 2020, even the pandemic hit, we did a youth conference online and we called it on the road to demascous, demasking. Demascous is just a play of words. Yeah, demasking, we're just removing. So on the road to demascous or demascous, right? It was all about how Christians, forget people of the world, leave them aside. Okay. But how Christians have mastered the art of wearing a mask? We have mastered the art. Like nobody's business, you know, we professionals at wearing masks and taking it off, not just one mask, multiple masks. Right. Okay. For this occasion, I'm going to wear this mask. Okay. For that occasion, I'm going to wear that mask. And for whatever reason, right? Sometimes we may have not chosen our masks.  Let's say, let's say a person abused you or something for whatever reason. And you have, and because of fear, you've chosen to wear a certain mask that would keep people away. You know what I'm saying? I mean, so that could have led to so many other things. And that could have led for you to even allowing God to do a new thing in you. You know what I'm saying? And all of that is possible where it could have led you to living a life of hypocrisy. It's simply that it's just wearing masks. And Matthew 23, 27, that's exactly kind of what Jesus is addressing there. It's like, okay, you fast and public, you pray and public loudly. But I know you. I know you. Right. Jesus doesn't bother proving himself to hypocrites. Everybody who questioned him before going up to the cross, Jesus after he rose again, did he go back to the pilot? Did he go back to the Pharisees and say, he's like, Hey, who's laughing now? Did he do that? He doesn't waste time with hypocrisy. Yeah, he just doesn't. That bothers him. We don't have to. As people of God, as Christians, Bible college students as leaders, one of the important things of being a leader is to be vulnerable. For example, if you don't know an answer to a certain question, say, I don't know. And you're making yourself vulnerable before those who are leading you. It's okay. But you know, the world has shown made this thing, okay, you need to know everything. If you don't know something, you're useless. You're not a good leader. You're not a great leader. But then something about vulnerability, like don't wear a mask. This is who I am. As in, you know, it's okay. Right. So be aware of life of, you know, double standards and worldliness. James chapter four was four and five adulterers and adulteresses. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God? Or do you think that the scripture says in vain, the spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously, there is a place in holiness where to continue growing in that process, you have to come to a place of hating sin. You have to have the divine hate, divine hatred towards sin, right? Divine hatred towards sin. Now, please, you have to keep in mind that here it's talking about the ways of the world. We are still called to go and to minister and teach and, you know, preach the gospel to the people. We can't use this verse and say, okay, I'm just going to be here. I'm not going to go into the world full of sinners, demons, all that. It's simply saying, don't be conformed, but be transformed. Romans chapter 12. Okay. Don't compromise, guys. Simple. All these points just leading to one thing. Don't compromise. Don't compromise. Samson compromised. His calling, his holy calling. He was a Nazarite for life. What was Samson's weakness? His eyes. It says when Samson saw a certain woman and he went down to Thimna. First, it starts off by saying Samson went down from to Thimna. That means went down. If you see the map, it's backfiring. Okay. So he was, he went to a place where he was not supposed to go because that land did not belong to these people. And then he says he saw and it pleased him. What was the first thing that the enemy took off when they caught him? Okay. Next point. Okay. I want to come down to the section where it says three areas that compromise holiness and then five lifestyle practices to perfecting holiness. Three areas of vulnerability is the lust of flesh and then the lust of eyes and the pride of life. Lust of flesh, lust of the eyes and pride of life. Those are all areas that can compromise your life of holiness. But one of the things that can help you grow and living and practice a life of holiness is living with reverence. That means living with the fear of God, you know, and living with vigilance.  So what is that word there is, you know, be sober and vigilant. That means in other words, don't be drunk. Don't be, don't be under the influence of something else. Okay. But be vigilant. So be aware. So living a life of reverence, living a life of vigilance, living with boundaries, living with transparency, with spouse, with ministry team. That means vulnerability and living with humility, being accountable to the people we serve. All of these five things is going to help you to live a life of holiness. No question. So it's like three areas that compromise wholeness instead of that lust or flesh. So like in bracket that sexuality, food and sleep. So could you please explain like how sleep is affecting the wholeness? Like compromising the wholeness. When you say the lust of the flesh, most of the time we think we associate the word lust with only sex. When you think of the spirit of lust, 90% of the time we only think of as sexual immorality. But it is the lust of the flesh. What are all the things that your flesh is capable of doing? Not just committing sexual immorality, but gluttony is a sin in the Bible. What is gluttony? Overeating, obese. It's like just eating without control and what not or treating food as worship and treating food as God. You just have no control over it. And then sleep, I mean the way I see it is kind of, sleep is important, rest is important, absolutely. But everything that is not done in good balance. For example, it's, if you go through the book of Proverbs, it says that is associated with laziness. And laziness is treated like a disease, right? It's what, couch potato, Netflix and chill. And you see what I'm saying, right? It's like not being productive, not being efficient is a compromise, as they used to say, idle mind is a devil's workshop. You know, so yeah. All right, so that is chapter five concluding, my personal holiness and the importance of it. All right, we'll pause here. We'll meet again next week and continue from where we left. But thank you all for joining. God bless you.


Hello everybody, HoodedCoverCommander788 here, and it's time for another Patron's Choice Vote. This is where supporters on Patreon get to vote to decide what will be reviewed on this channel. I've been wanting to do more of these this year, so let's get one started. Just a reminder, you do need to be a supporter on Patreon in order to vote, so please check out my Patreon to find out how support at any level gives you the vote. This time around I wanted to focus on small play sets, because I don't think they get enough love. In 1984 we got three battle stations in the G.I. Joe line, and those will be your options for this month's vote. Option one will be the 1984 Bivouac. This is a set I had as a kid, and I recall liking it a lot. This is a set with a lot of parts, so there will be a lot to talk about, so if you'd like to see a review of the 1984 Bivouac, go to Patreon and choose option one. Option two will be the 1984 Mountain Howitzer. This set was designed to be used in conjunction with G.I. Joe vehicles. It could be towed. This is actually a weapon, so if you want to see a more action oriented review, and you'd like to see the Mountain Howitzer, select option two. Option three will be the 1984 Watchtower. This is another one I had as a kid, and I really liked it. This one could be a challenge. This is a very tall set with the flag on top, so it could be a challenge to review it and get the whole thing in the camera frame. So if you'd like to see me challenged by a review of the Watchtower, select option three. I really like these play sets because they were small and inexpensive. Not every kid had the money or the space to get one of the large, sprawling play sets. So these sets meant that any fan of G.I. Joe could have a small play set to add to their play battles. So once again, just go over to Patreon to find out how to vote. Support at any level gives you the right to vote. Voting will start as soon as you see this video go up, which will be on March 4th. The voting will end on March 8th, and the winning video will go up on March 24th. So get started and pick your favorite. The voting starts now.


Lunch was good in Pearson with Tommy, pretty chill, food was good, chicken parm which is never a bad thing. Then we went to one of our favorite study spaces on campus, the Sci Center. Great place to grind out some CSP sets. And now I'm in Lindsay Chittenden Hall to talk about some video stuff with Henderson and do a little work towards another one of the clubs we're working on. And the question is, do you dedicate a whole season to that? Hey Josh, do you use my blog? I haven't. This is, there's a first time for everything in the world. I want to blog for you. I want to... That's not going to be. You should release like an interview. You're brave and hard, Josh. Brave and hard, that's never happening. Alright, so we're here in the students for Carbon Dividends Team Delta Force. Delta Force Lab Division, I think is our awesome name. Totally not an outfall. And we're working on making a funny web series about how carbon emissions affect human beings to an existential crisis. To the very core, Kyle can tell you the first thing. It's really just not something you want to... Not something you would... Really a big issue. A big issue. We have to address. So we're just here trying to shed light on human problems, you know. We want more people to know about what would be good work. We're doing the Lord's work. There's this non-denominational vlogger. Carbon is non-denominational. Carbon doesn't care what you're doing. Carbon exceeds all religion. It's for everyone and anyone. Carbon is absolute. So yeah. You know we're doing good work with S4CD and I'm excited to continue working with them. I'm back in the good old elevator now. I have about 30 minutes before I gotta head over to baseball practice. But until then I'm probably going to try to set up my G-Cal. To take care of some more administrative stuff now that I finally have my laptop back. Let's go. Had a pretty good practice. I'm headed back to TD now to get a couple of hours of work in before the night starts. Because it is a Friday night tonight's film. Let's see what happens when it should be a good time. Oh wait. That right there? I'll just go behind the tree. That right there is SSS. Sterling, Strathogonia, something all. I have a great view from it. From my window. I filmed a lot of videos right behind there in the courtyard. So good spot. All right. I'll see you guys in there. All right. So I am back. I'm now working. It's going pretty well so far. This is try and pause. My name is straight. So basically I'm working on CS right now. I'm currently taking ACS class. It's titled Data Structures and Programming Techniques. It's taught in C. Which I have done a little bit of work in before. But compared to Python or Java, one of the higher level languages, it's kind of annoying having to do all the memory allocation and all that stuff that just gets annoying very fast. So I just figured out something pretty cool. Basically to submit all your p-sets at Yale when it comes to computer science, there's a collection of like 20-something computers on a floor in Watson Hall. And it's called the zoo because each computer has a different name and it corresponds to an animal. But basically to submit your p-sets on your computer, you SSH and remotely connect to one of the animals in the zoo.  But the problem is with Sublime, I have to physically edit all my code, save the file, and then physically SSH and then SCP, my file is over to the zoo. But now I figured out a way to link up my Sublime account to the zoo. And I just commented here to make sure it worked. That's pretty cool now. All I have to do now is SSH into the zoo, touch a file, and then I can see it in Sublime and edit it and do whatever I want. And as soon as I save it, it's saved on the zoo. So that makes my life a lot easier. That was a lot of tech talk, so for those of you that don't know what I'm talking about, we're done with that now. Anyways, I'm probably going to work for a little bit longer and it's Friday night, so we'll see what happens. I'm either going to put my hand over the camera and say like, comment, subscribe, and either you're going to get some cool clips of what happened tonight, or it's just going to cut to credits because I forgot to film. So with that, I'll see you guys. You guys know I promised you some content. So I'm out here with my boy Henderson Heizer. How are you doing, Andy? Doing well, just ready to sling some tent tonight. You know, a huge chunk for the boys. Some tent? Yeah, that's all we do out here. What we call in the biz. I mean, as long as I'm with Josh Beasley, it's a good night. One more tent I asked for. Still not philosophy grind. If anyone has some big questions, feel free to send them my way because we're here to answer those. That's what we do. How are you doing, Zach? I'm doing well. This is your first appearance in the show. My name is Mohamed. Wait, wait. Am I sexy enough for this? I don't know. Yeah, I am. You're fine. Anything you want to say? We're talking to the vlog. Yeah, to the vlog. What I would say is like, keep living life. You make your own magic. So make your own magic. That is very true. Yeah, yeah. Montre, do you want to make an appearance? I know Josh through Camp Kessum. Camp Kessum. It's honestly one of the most amazing experiences ever. So if you end up here, hey, join Camp Kessum. Honestly, Camp Kessum has been one of the things that has defined my time at Yale.


Welcome to the First Unitarian Society of Madison. This is a community where curious seekers gather to explore spiritual, ethical, and social issues in an accepting and nurturing environment. Unitarian Universalism supports the freedom of conscience of each individual, as together we seek to be a force for good in the world. My name is Karen Rose Gretler, and on behalf of the congregation, I want to extend a special welcome to visitors and all other regulars who are with us this morning.  As we gather in this place and this time, let us remember we are all visitors in this life. We come together to find meaning and hope with all the other visitors in this life. Let us join our hearts and minds together as we celebrate life together. I invite you now to join me in a few moments of silence for contemplation, meditation, prayer, as we settle in and come fully into this time and place together. Good morning. We're going to sing a hymn that is probably unfamiliar to many of you. Number 116, I'm On My Way, is going to be the easiest hymn you've ever had to learn on the fly because it's call and response. I'm going to be the leader so you can respond and repeat back what you hear from me and if you want to sing along with me, that is fine. I don't think anyone will mind. If you want to echo me, then you'll be singing along with Reverend Doug who will sing with you and we echo, echo, echo and then at the end we sing, I'm On My Way, great God, I'm On My Way, all together each time. Please rise and body your spirit. I'm On My Way, freedom land, I'm On My Way, great God, I ask my sister, come and go with me, ask my sister, come and go with my sister, great God, I'm On My Way, I ask my brother, I ask my brother, come and my brother. If they say no, I'll go anyhow, if they say no, I'll go anyhow, I won't turn back, I'm On My Way and I won't turn back. Antoine the Saint-Exupéry reminds us, if we want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. Our chalice lighting words are found in your order of service, if you will join your voice with mine as we spark the flame. As together we say, as we kindle the flame of our faith, may we remember that vision is a choice in every moment we look forward or behind to the hopeful horizon or the hard road at our feet, to those already in the circle and those who have been shut out. We return today to remember that we become the vision we embrace. May our time together today help us choose wisely and with courage. Let's take a moment to turn to each other and offer a greeting. Hello. Beautifully done. You sparked beautifully. Good morning, Sandy. Thank you. So anyone who would like to come forward, anyone who would like to see the pictures of close and personal, please come up and join me for our time together. One is welcome, definitely. All this month we are thinking about what we want for the future of our lives and for this congregation. And one of the things we'll talk about today is that life is always full of big changes and those changes do things to how we feel, how we feel about life. And so I wanted to read you a story that explores that I think in a very helpful way. It is after the fall, how Humpty Dumpty got back up again by Dan Sattat. And many of you have probably heard this story before, but it is really good. So it's good for us to revisit it. And the pictures will be available behind me for everyone. My name is Humpty Dumpty. This was my favorite spot high up on the wall. I know it's an odd place for an egg to be. But I loved being close to the birds. One day I fell. I'm sort of famous for that part. Folks called it the Great Fall, which sounds a little grand. It was just an accident, but it changed my life. Fortunately, all of the king's men managed to put me back together. Well, most of me. There are some parts that couldn't be healed with bandages and glue. After that day, I became afraid of heights. I was so scared that it kept me from enjoying some of my favorite things. I walked past the wall every day, and I would think about climbing the ladder again. I really missed the birds in being high above the city, but I could never do it because I knew that accidents can happen. Exactly. I eventually settled for watching the birds from the ground. It wasn't the same, but it was better than nothing. Then one day, an idea flew by. Getting planes was harder than I thought. It was easy to get cuts and scratches, but day after day I kept trying and trying until I got it just right. My plane was perfect, and it flew like nothing could stop it. I hadn't felt that happy in a long time. It wasn't the same as being up in the sky with the birds, but it was close enough. Unfortunately, accidents happen. They always do. It looks like the airplane ends up back on the wall. I almost walked away again, but then I thought about all the time I had spent working on my plane and all the other things that I had missed. I decided I was going to climb that wall, but the higher I got, the more nervous I felt. I didn't want to admit it. I was terrified. I didn't look up. I didn't look down. I just kept climbing one step at a time until I was no longer afraid. Maybe now you won't think of me as that egg who was famous for falling. Hopefully you'll remember me as the egg that got back up and learned how to fly. In some ways, by that big change, he discovered new and important things about himself, didn't he? That's part of what brings us here, is to keep discovering new things about our lives and about each other. We have a lot of help. For one thing, the world around us is always changing. For instance, right now, we're moving into a change of the season. We have been in summer for many, many weeks, and there's more coolness in the air. The leaves are slowly turning, and it's becoming fall. We honor and celebrate that change as well, exactly. We will sing together a song that helps us think about the importance of the changing season, hymn number 51, Lady of the Season's Laughter. Thank you for sharing this story with me this morning. I hope the classes are great, and we'll see you at the end of the service. Enjoy. In preparation for this morning's reflection, a reading by shared voices from Dan and Perry, and a reading that we're calling The Trapeze. Sometimes I feel that my life is a series of trapeze swings. I'm either hanging on to a trapeze bar swinging along, or a few moments in my life hurtling across space in between trapeze bars. Most of the time, I spend my life hanging on to my trapeze bar of the moment. It carries me along at a certain steady rate of swing, and I have the feeling that I'm in control of my life. I know most of the right questions, and even some of the right answers. But once in a while, as I'm merrily, or not so merrily, swinging along, I look out ahead of me in the distance, and what do I see? I see another trapeze bar swinging toward me. It's empty, and I know that this new trapeze bar has my name on it. It is my next step, my growth, my aliveness, coming to get me. In my heart of hearts, I know that for me to grow, I must release the grip on this present well-known bar to move on to the next bar. Each time it happens to me, I hope that I won't have to grab the new one. But I know that I must totally release my grasp on the old bar, and for some moment in time, I must hurtle across space before I can grab on to the new bar. Each time, I am afraid that I will miss, that I will be crushed on the unseen rocks in the bottomless chasm between the trapeze bars. But I do it anyway. Perhaps this is the essence of what the mystics call the faith experience. No guarantee, no net, no insurance policy. But you do it anyway, because somehow, to keep hanging on to that old trapeze is no longer on the list of alternatives. It's called transition, and I have come to believe that it is the only place real change occurs. I mean real change, not the pseudo change that only lasts until the next time my old buttons get punched. I've noticed that in our culture, this transition zone is looked upon as a no thing, a no place between places, the scary, confusing, disorienting nowhere that must be gotten through as fast and unconsciously as possible. But those moments should be honored, even savored. Yes, with all the feelings of pain and fear and being out of control that can, but not necessarily do, accompany transitions, they are still the most alive, growth filled, passionate, expansive moments in our lives. It can be terrifying, it can also be enlightening, in the true sense of the word, hurtling through the void, we just may learn how to fly. Hear ends the reading. Continue exploring this month's theme of vision. If you were part of the congregation last week, I explored with you a particular understanding of how we engage in that vision by bringing each our own understanding of our life in a deeper sense. How we begin where we are with the human spirit that is within each and every person comprised of our thoughts, our feelings, our experiences and memories, the sense of our self, that essence that makes us uniquely who we are. And from that place of deep truth, we seek to connect with the thread of purposefulness that returns us again and again to a place of meaning in our lives. And from that place of meaning, we shape a vision for our life, sometimes explicitly, sometimes by its implication, sometimes just by living. One of the most essential components of the conversation about vision then is our transcending and transformative personal vision that we bring to the table. That is always a crucial place of grounding for the conversation if it is to be authentic. But there is also the deep grounding of your neighbor's vision of her, his life that opens up the conversation to new levels of richness and, yes, complexity. And then there's more. As I talked about last week, always the deep abiding hunger of the world around us calls us to pay attention and make its voice part of the conversation as well. So there is a lot for us to think about as we prepare in this time where we have acknowledged that we know we are in transition, all of the various elements and voices that we wish to fold together to do the important work. For a few minutes, I will explore what this time of transition asks of us, why it is so important that we engage in conversation during this time. The thing is, transition is already something you know very, very well. You have been through it time and time again. You have likely changed careers. Many of you have moved from another city. Some of you have moved from one country to another. You have lost jobs, you have taken care of and eventually lost parents. You have been left by someone that you have committed your life to and some of you have done the leaving. You have had kids that have moved out and sometimes back in again. We are all, if we're lucky, aging. And so retirement is something that we may eventually encounter. And in the meantime, our retirement accounts may go up and down alarmingly. Our bodies will age and therefore disease and change will be a part of our lives. We will have babies. We will blend families. Over and over again, the cycle of life will force us to encounter change in transition. So we begin with the reality that you already know a lot about what I'm talking about. And yet organizations also, again and again, encounter significant change. This summer, you let go of the familiar and exhilarating, the resilient and tangible trapeze bar of Reverend Michael Shuler's presence as your lead minister to this congregation. And as many of you know, we are working intentionally in this time to shape a new understanding of an exciting and collaborative shared ministry with Reverend Kelly Crocker and adding to the mix the wonderful talents of Karen Bringlesen and Drew Collins to our professional staff worship team. And we continue to work with an amazing gifted staff and incredible congregational leaders. There is a lot going on that is powerful change. And for the coming months, I will work with you as an intentional transition period minister with the clarity that I cannot fill the ministry position here. I will instead help you journey through this time, but I am not the next trapeze bar. I couldn't do it if I wanted to. I am not here to replace Reverend Michael, but I'm also not here to be not Reverend Michael. I am here to embody my own understanding of what I'm called to do in ministry to give you yet another example of what that looks like. But most of all, and what it is really all about is to create a certain time and space for you to do this work of transition. To do what I can to actually make you not too hasty to even look for the next trapeze bar yet. To encourage you if you can to enjoy the flight between trapeze bars even and especially if you suffer from fear of flying as so many of us do. At least to understand how important this time and this process really is. Not just to us as a community, but in so many ways to each and every one of you. So we are here to do essential and important work together to understand the real essence of this time and to take full advantage of it. To assist us in thinking about that I turn to the work of William Bridges and his book Managing Transition. He reminds us that many organizations have discovered the power of what he calls the neutral zone, the time when what was certain about our past has left us and what seems more certain about the future has not yet arrived. He talks about the importance of understanding even in the midst of our anxiety about change that this is a rare and powerful opportunity for each and every one of us. There is a chance in this upheaval for us to do new and interesting things. We have the opportunity, the possibility if we choose to take it to pursue this time with great energy and with courage. Andrejid reminds us one does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time. Well, our time at sea won't be that long, but it will feel at times very intense. And there will be all sorts of things going on, both outside of us, but to be honest within each of us as well. Now I am not a trapeze artist returning to this metaphor and if I were to partake literally in the metaphor of the trapeze, it might not go so well and actually would turn into an entirely different kind of metaphor, sort of an end of life metaphor as a matter of fact. But if we are to learn from those who do that trapeze artistry successfully, they tell us some important skills that we actually have been practicing for a long time in our own transitions. They tell us that in order to let go of that trapeze bar and soar through the air and successfully connect with the next bar, they have done a lot of practicing to do that well. They have learned how to focus their attention quite amazingly and with incredible purpose. They have learned to engage their entire senses to pay attention in that moment of free flight, to not allow it to be a time of tumultuousness but a time of clarity, a time of momentum, a time of using that motion in a certain powerful and skillful way. We could learn a lot from taking seriously that metaphor because there's also a lot in this time that can go awry. One thing that bridges over and over again, observed when people are in the midst of transition is that there are all sorts of difficult things that happen. Congregations, organizations become anxious and if they become too anxious, they behave badly with each other. They become disoriented and doubtful about the possibility of a good future and in that, often productivity, even in the most skilled organization, will drop and old issues will rear their ugly heads again and gain new power. Some people will want to rush through that time as quickly as possible and move forward towards the new and some people will use this opportunity to once again beat the old drum of making First Unitarian great again by going back to the good old days when it was comfortable and familiar. But neither the hurrying forward or the looking behind will really allow you to be present to the power of now. So in the midst of this upheaval, whatever will allow you to reframe what this time is about into a time of possibility, not just for this congregation, but in your own life as well, that this time of change will allow you to see and experience things in a new and transformative way. Maybe to help you think a little bit differently about it, I will use a related but slightly different metaphor. I will invite you to understand this time as a series of random moments. But to understand what I mean by random moments, I will return to one of the original meanings of the word random. Random is that instant when a horse is galloping at full speed and in that extraordinary state of momentous movement, all four hooves are off the ground and for a split second the horse is no longer earthbound. What if encountering a new era in this place or in your life was a time to embrace the power of your freedom as it points toward the lift that results from total immersion and surrender to the truths that reveal themselves? What if what seems to be adrift from all that is grounding and stabilizing may offer us the chance to rest in the wisdom that we are enfolded in possibility, where much is in flux, much is possible? I invite you to percolate on some important questions about this time. If you could give yourself to the possibility of the future of this congregation, what would you, as you sit here this morning, most hope for, for this place? And just as importantly, what would you be willing to work for to bring about the change in this place? And because it is always also about you, in your own life right now, what are the places that seem to be uncertainty that you could choose to see as times of creative exploration? What is happening for you now today that might be calling you to explore something new and powerful? Over and over again in our lives, we encounter experiences, sometimes metaphorical, sometimes not so allegorical or metaphorical, where we are on the precipice. One of the many times that I have found myself thinking as a minister, how did I get myself into this situation, was a moment where I found myself standing on a plank, attached to a tree about 75 feet in the air, nothing really to hold onto, just a rope attached to my body, staring down at 25 other people, all of whom happened to be clergy, none of whom I even remembered their names at that moment, and they were all staring up at me. I was about as uncomfortable and exposed at that moment as I can imagine. But what was fascinating, especially in memory's eye, is that in that moment, I was also feeling magically alive. So how I got there was that many years ago, in the midst of a lot of changes in my life, I enrolled in the pastoral leadership program at Seattle University. The program encouraged people who were ministers, who had served in their setting of ministry for many years to come together and explore in their current life in ministry, what was leadership about? How did they understand their ministry? What was their lived theology of ministry? What was the world around them calling them to do now? And to get us going and to build the team, we began with an all day retreat where we did low and high ropes course work together. And at the end of this day, we culminated with this exercise where we each were invited to climb up onto this tree with a belay around us, stand on the edge of this plank, yell out to the world our intention for the coming year in this program, and then fling ourselves off of that plank into the air. Well, let me just say that, one, the idea of climbing a ladder is terrifying to me. Transferring myself to a high perch is also terrifying to me. And maybe a little surprisingly, the idea of calling out to the world something that I really deeply personally care about, also not one of my favorite things to do every day anyway. So there I was. And as I stood there for a moment, there were some things that I knew for certain. I knew that my 11-year relationship had just come to an end a few months before that, and I felt utterly adrift in my life. I knew in some very powerful and real way that in the coming months or years, it would be time for me to lead the congregation that I had served for what felt like a very long time. I could see that trapeze bar heading my way. And to be honest, I have no earthly idea anymore what I yelled out as I flung myself off of that perch.  And I am happy to say I actually succeeded in that intent that day, so score for me. But the thing is, it didn't really matter what I said in that moment. What really mattered was that in that moment, I gave myself fully to that moment. And I allowed myself to be carried from that perch and to move forward and out. And I remember vividly the dizzying moment when I leaped in that excruciating and eternal time when I felt held by the arms of oblivion. And then I tore through the placenta to the reality of a plummeting freefall and plummet I most assuredly did. But somehow, paradoxically, in that horrifying moment, I also felt paradoxically utterly safe in the world, confident in the care of my colleagues holding that rope, not knowing them well at all, but knowing that they too would be invited to stand where I was and take their turn in falling. And it was important, life-saving for us each to do what we could to keep the other safe. And we did. I realize now that it was the giving myself to that trust of that process and of the process of my life and of the possibilities that were at work, whether I knew they were or not in that moment and in every scary moment. That is what made the difference. And the same is true for each and every one of you. Whether we're talking about something in your life right now that feels overwhelming or the prospect of what this congregation will look like in a few months, much less years, what would it feel like to give yourself fully to the conversation, to use this time bravely and well and with love for yourself and to each other? How would it feel to be vulnerable to each other and talk about what really matters and to together gallop forward into the future? Nicky Giovanni tells us, a lot of people resist transition and therefore they never allow themselves to enjoy who they are. Embrace the change, no matter what it is. Once you do, you can learn about the new world you're in and then take advantage of it. In the coming months, in our work together, in your own life, may a spirit such as that random horse in flight be yours. May it help you find that larger vision for this congregation and for your life and blessed be. Again and again, every week throughout the service, we are offered the opportunity to practice that power of transformation. And the offering is actually one of the most meaningful places to do that. It asks us to think about the realities of our life, the gifts we have been given, the things that feel hard in our lives, and to choose in that moment to decide what we can give generously, what gifts we have to offer. This morning, we are given the opportunity to do that not only for this congregation, but to share with the native vote program of the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters. That has been encouraging a higher percentage of Native American voters for years now with great success. In this time when voting is such an essential part of bringing forward our country, may we find a place of generosity to support this work. As our offering is now given and received, may a spirit of abundance and love guide us. We appreciate the many gifts of those who helped our service this morning. On sound, we thank Mark Schultz. Our greeter today was Lynn Scoby. Usher's this morning were Dale Carter, Mary Ann Newman, Elizabeth Barrett, and Sam Bates. Our coffee this morning is being served by Jean Hills. The welcome table is being staffed by Dorot Bergen and our lay ministers, Anne Smiley. I also want to invite you to stop by the Journey Circles Information Table in the Commons after service. Journey Circles are our new small covenant groups that will focus on the congregation's monthly themes. They are an integral part of the theme-based ministry that you are hearing so much about. Our Journey Circles will offer the gift of listening to one another and attentiveness to each person's thoughts, ideas, and reflections. Guided by the monthly themes, a connection to and engagement with others from our faith community is at the heart of this work. Journey Circles will connect each other to one another and to the greater whole. We invite you to peruse the information in the Commons and to sign up for a Journey Circle. And in the cares of the congregation, we come together as a community each week to acknowledge that we bring joys and sorrows written on our hearts, but also in this place that we give and receive love together and offer mutual strength. And so in this place, we remember some of the things both spoken and unspoken written, but sometimes only written still within us, each of us. And so today, we hold and remember. Our hearts are with P.K., who is struggling with the passing of his wife from cancer after 40 years of marriage. We also honor Liz and Bill Wessel, who ask us to welcome Danielle Avery Wessel into the world. She and her parents live in the Seattle area. We also remember that this week in Middleton, we became yet another place that has experienced an active shooter incident. And on that same day in the United States, there were two other incidents. And here in Middleton, that incident actually impacted some members of the congregation's lives directly. And throughout the country, it added yet more lives lost to gun violence. And so we keep in mind the power of that in our lives. For a moment, may the power of breath itself and our presence here draw us into this moment, into a place of deep thought, deep connection, deep calling to find ways to act for love and justice. So may it be. As we move towards the end of our service, I invite us to rise in all the ways that we do and join our voices together in hymn number 1,018. Come and go with me. Come and go with me to that land. Come and go with me to that land. Where I'm bomb and go with me. Where I'm bomb in that land. There'll be justice in that land. There'll be justice in that land. There'll be justice in that land. There'll be justice in that land. Where I'm bomb, be justice in that land. Where I'm bomb. There'll be singing in that land. There'll be singing. Place, what might it look like to learn from a stallion's ecstatic encounter with random? Well, it would invite us again and again to give ourselves to the momentum of life, but to remember that when we touch ground, we touch love. We touch connection to the Earth itself. We reconnect with the power much older than who we are. May that journey, all of it, carry us forward into this time. We extinguish this light, but not the light of wisdom, not the fire of passion and justice, not the warmth of love and compassion. Those remain in your life until you gather in this place again. Before you move into your afternoon, let's take another moment together. Be seated together and enjoy the gift of music.


Tiantoto to the modern stage production as the band and trumpet soloist Phil Weirman plays selections from the Wiz