Planet Chalice: Children's Story

Once upon a time there was land where all the animals were shaped like chalices. Some were round chalices; some were thin chalices. There were tall chalices and short chalices. Some had fur, some had feathers, some had fairly bare skin. Some chalices would swim, some would climb, some would run, and some would burrow. Some chalices liked to eat plants, and some liked to eat each other. You would think that since they were all chalices, they would get along.

But they didn't.

In fact, the planet was about to tear itself apart from conflict between the chalices, when a space ship appeared. The chalices thought it was a god because it had a chalice emblem emblazoned on the outside. It wasn't a god. It was a spaceship from Earth, in the far future, when the Unitarian Universalist Association had its own space program. Unitarian Universalist Astronauts went on missions for the UUSC (Unitarian Universalist Space Committee).

The chalice folk called a temporary truce from their fighting so they could greet the space ship. The ship's doors opened, and, instead of a chalice emerging, there was a very different sort of animal. You and I would recognize it as a human being, but the creatures of Planet Chalice didn't recognize it at all.

One of the chalice folk said, "Look, it's not a god after all!"

And another said, "It is too a god!"

One chalice said, "We should kill it."

Other chalices said, "We should save it."

Soon the chalices were all fighting again.

The human cried, "Stop! What is this?"

One of the chalices paused in the midst of aiming a bite at another chalice. "It's fighting," she answered. "Don't you have it on your planet?"

"We used to," said the human. "But we stopped."

"How did you stop it?"

"It's complicated," said the human, trying to remember the history she had studied of the many centuries in which wars came and went, gradually getting smaller and further apart.

"Oh."

"Well, actually, basically, it was simple."

"Oh?"

"We realized that we were all different kinds of bodies and beliefs, but that, like a chalice, we all carried the divine light within. Just like you?"

"Just like us?" exclaimed the chalices. "What are you talking about? What divine light?"

"Look closely," said the human. "I can see it in each of you. It's so beautiful, as are each of you."

The chalices looked at each other. They looked and looked. And they saw the light within. They saw that each of them was a vessel to carry the light of interconnection. They were amazed.

"My work here is through," said the Unitarian Universalist astronaut, as she went back into her ship and took off.

Over the next years -- and decades -- and centuries on Planet Chalice, there continued to be arguments and conflicts. There continued to be sad times. Yet it was never so bad as it had been in the days before one simple insight of appreciation happened to be dropped by a foreign visitor. From that moment forward, the chalices never went into any problems, no matter how complex, without always seeing the light within.

* * * * *
By LoraKim Joyner
Part 2 of "Consuming Passions"
Next: Part 3: Meredith: "Integrity"
Previous: Part 1: Meredith & LoraKim: "The Eating Conscience"

Parable: Elephant Training

Charlie, Anne, and Su were the best of friends. One of the things they enjoyed about each other was that all three of them had the same birthday. One year when their birthday came, the most amazing thing happened. Charlie got an elephant for his birthday! And so did Anne! And so did Su! The three friends were flabbergasted.
"Wow!" said Charlie.
"Whoah!" said Anne.
"Holy Toledo!" said Su.

They looked at their parents, who, truth be told, seemed a little perplexed themselves. But they pulled themselves together and said parenty things like, "Well, we thought you were ready."

They also said: "You'll have to be responsible and take good care of it."

The whole town was excited. They'd never had elephants in their town before. Many of the townsfolk had never even seen a live elephant. They crowded around the yards of Charlie, Anne, and Su. Soon people were asking to see Charlie and Anne and Su ride on their elephants.

Because the three friends often had fun together competing with each other at games, they decided to have an elephant training competition. Who could best train her or his elephant? The townspeople would be the judge.

Charlie went to work trying to train his elephant to recognize and respond to voice commands.
"Turn left" he shouted -- and tried to coax the elephant to turn left. He also taught his elephant "Go," "Stop," and "Turn right."

Anne worked with touch instructions on her elephant. She sat on the back of her elephant's neck and gently tugged on the right ear when she wanted it to turn right, on its left ear when she wanted it to turn left. She rubbed her hand forward on its head to mean go, and she patted its head to mean stop.

For weeks the friends used every spare moment to be with their elephants trying to train them. And usually there were several townspeople gathered to watch, because it was so interesting. But whenever anyone went by Su's yard, all they saw was Su sitting up on her elephant, looking thoughtful and not doing much of anything.

When the day of the contest came, the whole town gathered around the town baseball field. Charlie brought out his elephant, and got up on its neck. "Go," he shouted. And the elephant went. For the next 5 minutes, Charlie shouted various instructions: "Turn right...Stop...Go...Turn left." The elephant usually did as it was told, though sometimes Charlie had to shout the same command several times before the elephant did it, and on one occasion, the elephant never did turn left, as Charlie was calling out for it to do.

Still, the townspeople were impressed. They clapped and cheered and several hollered out, "Good job, Charlie!"

Then Anne brought out her elephant. She climbed up on it and soon began giving the touch commands. She pulled -- but not too hard -- on one ear, or the other. She rubbed its head to go and patted its head to go. The townspeople could see what she was doing, and they could see that the elephant usually complied. Sometimes Anne had to tug or pat or rub repeatedly before the elephant complied, and once it never did obey.

Again the townspeople were impressed and clapped and cheered and some of them shouted, "Good job, Anne!"

Then Su came out and mounted her elephant. The townspeople held their breath in a moment of suspense. Then they saw Su point forward, and the elephant begin lumbering in the direction she pointed. They saw that she pointed left and the elephant curved its path around to the left. They saw hold her hand up, and the elephant stopped. The elephant always did as Su indicated, and always did so promptly.

The townspeople declared Su the winner. Afterwards, they asked her how she did it. Su explained, "I spent a lot of time sitting on my elephant, and I learned to feel what it was about to do. When I could tell it was about to go forward, I pointed forward. When I could tell it was about to turn left, I pointed left. When I knew it was coming to a stop, I held my hand up."

The townspeople couldn't decide whether Su was very wise or they had been bamboozled.

* * *
Go to sermon, "The Divided Self"

An Easter Story Story

This is the story about the story: the story about what happened to the story about Yeshua. Yeshua taught people about a new way to live in love with each other. After he died, Yeshua’s students and followers began gathering together in communities that they called churches. They gathered to share the stories about Yeshua, to try to try to attain this Kingdom of God that Yeshua talked about.

Soon, however, the story started changing. Very different ideas started to be added on.

SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER: When Yeshua said Kingdom of God, did he really mean that the Kingdom was right here – that the Kingdom was created whenever people lived together with love as their law? Some people started to say, “Oh, what Yeshua really meant was that the Kingdom of God is a happy place that your soul goes to after your body dies, but only if you’ve been good.”

SUNDAY SCHOOL PUPIL [precocious, impertinent]: That’s probably not what Yeshua meant.

TEACHER: They started to say that Yeshua was God.

PUPIL: Why would they say that? Yeshua didn’t say that.

TEACHER: In those days, anyone who was very important was said to be a god. For instance, the Romans said that Augustus Caesar was God. Yeshua’s followers also started starting saying Yeshua had a miraculous birth.

PUPIL: I’m sure it was. Every birth is miraculous.

TEACHER: They said only Yeshua had this particular kind of miraculous birth, that his mother was a saint.

PUPIL: I’m sure she was. Mine is.

TEACHER: According to the story, Yeshua’s Mom was special and holy like no other woman ever. And Yeshua’s father was not a human being at all, but was God.

PUPIL: But you said they said Yeshua was God.

TEACHER: Yes.

PUPIL: So . . . he was his own father?

TEACHER: Well, no. . . .

PUPIL: Oh, then there were two Gods: one was the father of the other.

TEACHER: No, they always said there’s just one God.

PUPIL: Then, how . . . ?

TEACHER: I don’t know. I’m just telling you what they said.

PUPIL: What else did they say?

TEACHER: They said that after he died, his body was laid in a tomb on a Friday afternoon, but then on Sunday morning he came back to life.

PUPIL: So he wasn’t really dead, then?

TEACHER: No, he was really dead. But then he came back to life.

PUPIL: What part of “dead” do you not understand?

TEACHER: I’m just telling you what they said. Besides, there are lots of stories in which the dead come back to life.

PUPIL: Uh, yeah, like Zombie stories. Do you mean Yeshua was undead?

TEACHER: Don’t say that! Have some respect!

PUPIL: I’m just trying to understand what the story is saying.

TEACHER: And I’m trying to tell you. A lot of different stories started being told about Yeshua.
In some of those stories, they say Yeshua died to take your sins away.

PUPIL: My sins? That’s awfully nice of him, but how does one person dying take away sins of another person? Also: I wasn’t born yet, so I didn’t have any sins back then. Oh! And didn’t you say that he died and then came back to life two days later? Does that mean that my sins come back in two days?

TEACHER: You ask a lot of questions.

PUPIL: Is that OK?

TEACHER: Yes, my dear. It’s wonderful.

Over the last 2000 years, a lot of different ways of telling the Yeshua story have come along. Some of those stories are all about how he was born and what happened after he died. The things he did in between don’t matter so much.

There are also people who consider themselves followers of Yeshua – Christians -- who pay no attention to anything supposedly special about Yeshua’s birth or his death, or after death. For them, the only Yeshua story is the story of what Yeshua did, how he lived, and what he taught. They also call themselves Christian because they try to live as Yeshua taught. They try to live as though God, or love, lives within us and among us, and the better we know that, the better we can love.

An Easter Story

Once upon a time, long before there was the internet or video games or even electric lights, before there were e-books – before there were books – back when stories were preserved only on scrolls and in memory – the world was different yet also very much the same. For instance, today there are poor people and rich people – and so were there then. A child was born into a poor family. His name was Yeshua: a quiet boy, with bright eyes, curious and kind.

When Yeshua was 12, his family traveled into the big city for the festival. In the big city, Yeshua got separated from his parents. They searched all over for him for three days, worried sick. When they found him, he was sitting with a circle of grown-ups next to the temple. The wisest elders in the whole city were gathered, and Yeshua was paying careful attention and asking questions.

YESHUA: Why are some people rich and others are poor? Why is there suffering? Why do we make mistakes that hurt others or ourselves? Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do bad things happen to bad people? Is there really any such thing as bad people or good people? How can we learn how to be more kind and more loving?

Every elder had a different answer because nobody was sure.

When Yeshua became a grown up, he was still trying to find the answers. He read all the scrolls, and asked every teacher he could find. He went into the desert to get away from other people and be alone to think and to feel, to hear the quiet message of his own heart, and to experience more deeply the Earth and the sky.

Yeshua stayed in the desert many days with very little food.

One day in the desert a gazelle walked up to him.

GAZELLE: Why are you here, human?

Yeshua didn’t know if he was imagining, or if a Gazelle was really talking.

YESHUA: I want answers.

GAZELLE: What are the questions?

YESHUA: Why is there suffering? Why are some rich while others are poor? Why do we make hurtful mistakes? Why do bad things happen?

GAZELLE: Why, why, why.

Gazelle left. She came back the next day. Yeshua looked at her and repeated his question.

YESHUA: Why?

Gazelle looked at him, and spoke quietly.

GAZELLE: What do you already know?

YESHUA: Everybody I ask gives a different answer.

GAZELLE: There are many different reasons then.

Gazelle left again. The next day, the sun was sinking low before Gazelle trotted by where Yeshua was sitting. Yeshua looked up.

YESHUA: There are many different reasons.

GAZELLE: Yes, many reasons.

YESHUA: So how can we learn to be kinder?

GAZELLE: Good question. Much better than the other ones.

Gazelle left and did not return. A week later, Yeshua left the desert and returned to the villages of people. He began talking to people and teaching them.

YESHUA: I know that you suffer, and are poor, that you have made mistakes and are sorry, and others have made mistakes that harmed you. I have some good news.

CROWD: What? What? What is the news?

YESHUA: The kin[g]dom of God is within and among you.

CROWD: What did he say? What was that word?

PERSON 1: He said "Kingdom" of God. Like God is the King and will rule over us.

PERSON 2: No, he didn’t say "Kingdom" of God. He said the "Kin-dom" of God. Like we’re all kin – we’re all related to each other. When we know we are kin, that’s when we live in a holy way, like God.

YESHUA: The good news is the kindom of God. It is where love rules. Where love is the only law. Love is inside you, and love is among you. Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you.

Wherever Yeshua went, he tried to teach people how to be kinder. One day a man approached him.

PERSON 3: How can I live from love and for love?

YESHUA: Follow the rules and follow the love, for the rule is love.

PERSON 3: What’s the rule?

YESHUA: There are really only two. The first is: love the lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind. And the second is like the first: love your neighbor as yourself.

PERSON 3: My neighbor as myself?

YESHUA: Your neighbor as yourself.

PERSON 3: Who is my neighbor?

YESHUA: Let me tell you a story. Once there was a man who was robbed and beaten and left by the side of the road. Two people passed by and did nothing to help. A third person went to the man, bandaged his wounds, brought him to an inn and took care of him, paid for his care. So who was a neighbor to that robbed and beaten man?

PERSON 3: The one who showed him mercy.

YESHUA: Go, and do likewise.

Another time, another man approached Yeshua.

PERSON 4: How can I live from love and for love?

YESHUA: You know the commandments: don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t lie.

PERSON 4: I have kept the commandments since my youth, yet my heart is not satisfied. How can I have a larger love?

Yeshua looked at the man and loved him.

YESHUA: Go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor.

When the man heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions. Wherever he went, Yeshua talked to people and taught them to have hope in each other, taught them to care for each other, and how to be together in a community where love is the only law – a community that he called the kingdom, or the kin-dom, of God.

PERSON 5: Sounds like a liberal.

Yeshua especially emphasized taking care of the poor: providing everyone with housing, and food, and health care.

PERSON 5: Yep. Definitely a liberal.

- - - - -

Sources (from NRSV):
When Yeshua was 12 . . .
Luke 2: 40-48:

The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him. Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Assuming that he was in the group of travelers, they went a day's journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, "Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety." [No parallels in other gospels]

He went into the desert
Mark 1: 12-13:

And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him. [Parallel passages: Matt 4: 1-11, and Luke 4: 1-13]

The news
Luke 4: 43:

But he said to them, "I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other cities also; for I was sent for this purpose."

Luke 8:1:

Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God.

Luke 17: 21:

For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among (Or within) you.

Compare:
Deut 30: 11-14:

Surely, this commandment that I am commanding you today is not too hard for you, nor is it too far away. It is not in heaven, that you should say, "Who will go up to heaven for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?" Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, "Who will cross to the other side of the sea for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?" No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe.

Love your enemies...
Luke 6: 27-28:

"But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse your, pray for those who abuse you." [Parallel passage: Matt 5: 44]

The rule is love
Matthew 22: 37-40:

He said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. [Parallel passages: Mark 12: 28-31, and Luke 10: 25-28]

Compare:
Deut 6:4-6:

Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart.

Leviticus 19: 18:

You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

Who is my neighbor?
Luke 10: 29-37:

But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, 'Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.' Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers? He said, "The one who showed him mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise." [Parallel passages: Matt 22: 34-40, and Mark 12: 28-34]

Sell what you own, give to the poor
Mark 10: 17-22:

As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: 'You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.'" He said to him, "Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth." Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, "You lack one thing: go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me." When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions. [Parallel passages: Matt 19: 16-22, and Luke 18: 18-23]

Luke 12: 33:

Sell your possessions and give alms

Luke 14: 33:

So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.