When Judith asked me to light the chalice today I felt grateful and honored. I then spent the next few days thinking about the meaning of sacred and what is scared to me. In my typical thinking style ideas kept popping in - so to help unify my thoughts I looked up sacred in the Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary. Definition 2B spoke to me - entitled to reverence and respect - sacred means entitled to reverence and respect.

Doesn’t that sound like our Unitarian Universalist Principles?

Entitled to reverence and respect -

These are the 7 Principles in my favorite kid friendly R.E. version. I invite you to think of each through the lens of this definition of sacred - entitled to reverence and respect.

1. Every person is important and valuable. 
2. All people should be treated fairly and kindly. 
3. We should accept one another and keep on learning together. 
4. Each person should be free to search for what is true and right. 
5. All people have the right to speak out and have a say in things that matter to them. 
6. We should help build a peaceful, fair and free world. 
7. We need to take care of the earth, the home we share with all living things.

To find the sacred we strive to treat everyone and our environment with reverence and respect. For me this is living a sacred life.

As I read Judith’s blurb in the newsletter about her topic today “What is Sacred?” I was struck by the notion that we Unitarian Universalists share some thoughts as to what is sacred in our agreement to our 7 Principles.

I am so grateful to have this church as my sacred space where my daughter Rachael can explore her own thoughts about what she believes in The Coming Of Age program. My son Galen can explore who he is and what he believes in the 4th/5th grade R.E. class.

My husband Ian, the secular Buddhist/follower of Sam Harris can learn about religion through the many tapes and books he’s checked out from our lending library. And I can wrangle with my many often contradictory beliefs about religion with wonderful people who nurture their own and my learning and growth. My husband Ian’s Aunt Ruth -lived a good life - it seemed to me that she balanced her own joys with helping others and doing what she could to make the world a better place. During the celebration of her life at the Ventura Unitarian Universalist Church I realized that I wanted to live a bit more like Ruth - living a good life in which I help others and make the world a better place one situation at a time. And I wanted to find a like minded community a place like her church. Reflecting on Ruth’s life brought me to Unitarian Universalism and this wonderful church.

I light the chalice today in honor of Ruth Smith, in honor of this congregation. With the hope that we will all strive to live a good life - a sacred life - through treating ourselves, everyone we touch and the Earth as deserving of reverence and respect.