Weekly
Newsletter
High
Country Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (HCUUF)
Weekly
Newsletter: June 11-17, 2018
CONTENTS
• Sunday
Services
• Upcoming
Service & Social Time, June 17, 2018
• Join
Us for Dinner after Service, June 17, 2018
• What
Ails You Friend?
• Touchstones
Journal for June: Wisdom
• HCUUF
Facebook Page
• Other
News Sent under Separate Cover
• HCUUF
Website
• Contact
Information for Newsletter Announcements
• Contact
Information for HCUUF
• Consulting
Minister, Board Members, Committees, Musician, Staff
• Sunday
Services
Our
weekly Sunday Services take place in the Fellowship Hall of the
Lord of the Mountains Church in Dillon, CO at 4:00 pm and are
followed by a Social Hour or Potluck at 5:00 pm. Potlucks
usually occur on the last Sunday of the month.
During
2018 we have had a short sabbatical during the months of May
and October during which no services are held but other
activities takes place from time to time.
• Upcoming
Service & Social Time
June
17, 2018: Service & Social Time
Sermon
Title: If I Had Only Known
Speaker: Rev.
Kirk Loadman Copeland
If
we had wisdom from the beginning we would had lived our lives
differently. But we don’t, so we make mistakes here and there.
Hopefully,
the result is some degree of wisdom. Join us as we consider the
long journey toward wisdom, a journey that is never done.
• Join
Us for Dinner
Join
us for Dinner after Service on June 17.
Reverend
Kirk will be joining HCUUF folks for dinner in a local
restaurant after the service on June 17. We will choose a
restaurant depending on the preferences of those who wish to
come.
• What
Ails You Friend?
by
Rev. Kirk Loadman-Copeland, Consulting Minister
In
the film, “The Fisher King,” Robin William’s played the part of
Parry, a homeless man, whose wife had been killed in an
explosion. One of the most moving parts of the film is when
Parry tells the story of the Fisher King.
Many
years earlier, the future king, while still a boy, had looked
into a fire, saw the holy grail, and reached to grasp it. He was
terribly wounded when he put his hand into the fire and tried to
grasp it. The grail had not been in the fire, but from that
moment forward, it was the only thing in the world that he
wanted. Eventually that desire, which was so overwhelming, made
him sick with experience. Over time, the wound grew deeper until
it touched his soul and he lost the will to live. Years earlier,
he had ordered his knights to find the grail, but they had all
failed.
Parry
continued the story. A fool wandered into the castle, found the
king lying in his bed, obviously in pain, and asked, “What ails
you friend?” Good question! “What ails you friend?” The king is
thirsty, so the fool pours water into a goblet sitting on a
table beside the bed. He hands it to the king, and the king is
astonished to see that it is the holy grail. The king asked, how
did you find the grail? The fool replies, “I don’t know. I only
saw that you were thirsty.”
What
ails you friend? If you had been the king, how would you have
answered such a simple question? Better yet, when you have found
yourself in such pain, how did you answer? Tragedy touches all
of us too often.
In
moments like these, the death of a loved one or a life
threatening diagnosis, we find ourselves sick with experience
and, like the king, we risk the possibility that life will lose
its meaning.
What
ails you friend? We try to answer, but our thoughts are so
jumbled and confused that no words come to mind that can begin
to express our grief, our sorrow, our anger, our disbelief, or
our dis-ease.
We
need fools who wander into our life and ask us the questions
that we have no idea how to answer. Because it is only in the
silence that follows, that answers find us and find voice in us.
I
think of the Cheshire Cat in “Wonderland,” and his enigmatic
grin. What do you know Chessie that we don’t? The Cheshire Cat
is an archetype of the wise the fool, and just like the holy
grail in the fire, the Cheshire Cat disappears until all that
remains is a grin. And then the grin fades as well.
“`Cheshire
Puss,’ [Alice] began, rather timidly, … ‘Would you tell me,
please,
which
way I ought to go from here?’
‘That
depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ said the Cat.
‘I
don’t much care where—’ said Alice.
‘Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,’ said the Cat.
‘—so
long as I get SOMEWHERE,’ Alice added as an explanation.
‘Oh, you’re sure to do that,’ said the Cat, ‘if you only walk
long enough.’”
We will get somewhere if we only walk long enough—it’s the
place called the end of life. “What ails you friend?” “I don’t
know, but I need to get somewhere.”
The
fool’s question is intended to turn us inward, to invite us to
go deeper. The fool, in the form of a Cat in a crazy place
called Wonderland, tells us that it all depends a good deal on
where we want to get to. You see, it does matter which we go.
Pushed
to despair, choose to walk toward meaning. Pushed to hatred,
choose to walk toward love. Pushed to confusion, choose to walk
toward clarity. Pushed to isolation, choose to walk toward
community. Pushed to chaos, choose to walk toward wisdom.
We
need these lovely fools in our lives to bring us back to some
sense of possibility and wholeness.
What
ails you my friend? The fool could have just as well asked,
“What do you need to make you whole?” “What do you need to be
saved from your grief, your sorrow, your anger, your disbelief,
or your dis-ease?”
There
is no magic answer, but there are blessings like compassion and
love and understanding and solidarity that we can bestow upon
each other.
Here’s
the deal. I’m willing to be a fool for you and I invite you to
be a fool for someone else. This doesn’t require uncommon
wisdom. It does require a willingness to ask again and again,
“What ails you friend?” And to listen, as you offer your
presence.
• Touchstones
Journal for June: Wisdom
Please
find attached the eight-page Touchstones Journal for May as a
pdf. This month’s journal explores the theme of wisdom.
T.S.
Eliot wrote, “Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?”
for wisdom goes well beyond knowledge. Wisdom has been defined
as an awareness of the best ends as well as the best means.
Our
tradition values wisdom. It should inform all that we do. In
addition, it is the most valuable part of the legacy that we can
bequeath to future generations.
• Touchstones
Journal for June: Wisdom
