 Wow That's something I would have I would have introduced you to that man, but I don't remember his name He's not wearing his name tag Well, but you have something to introduce you and I really should have known him, but I just Okay, do you want more coffee or anything? Okay Don't leave yet. Don't leave it because I just What doctor who do you get Netflix? Do you get Hulu? Then you can find you can find DVDs in the library But if you if you go to the ones that started before 2005 I mean at the beginning I started out as a children's show and then the people who watched it grew up with the show So now the people who are the writers are people who watched it as children in the show has become more Sophisticated themes have become denser and more interesting and I would start with 2005 Yes, it's on BBC and I just want you to know I just I'm a person who's like you I mean like the songs are always going through my head So it didn't happen to me yesterday, but today I was as you were talking about moments I'm like oh they fly for only moments even now and then a bad one So I've got like into the woods going through my head while you're doing that. So we're sisters. Good job Are you pleased with how it's going? Good good good good good good and having having Michael do it is just was just brilliant doctor. Were you those are awesome? Bo tie doctor down to here if it if I didn't it goes bloop and then nobody can hear me So that's what it is and then I'll take it off my skin and I'll go up and Max will go There there I'm satisfied with my care We saw it. Yes, we saw it baby for yesterday. Yes, we climbed in the window I like that starts like this Starts like this after a lot of lucky. Nice to meet you up scheduled to do So it'll be fun It'll be fun. So you're so are you coming or going? Okay, good. Good. We'll be here Okay Let a little If you faster though, we'll be in touch She's an intern. She's a student. She's a student. Yes Yep With it. Well, there's well, there's a new spot now. There's a new young spot Yes She would have Well, she would have she would have appreciate She would have appreciated that you're maybe you're so okay Okay, okay. Bye, sweetie. Thank you I Know I turned it off. I thought I turned it off. Oh, it's still on Dicks. Good morning. Every good morning, everyone Let's take a moment for some centering silence and now let us join for our in-gathering him number 395 but the words are printed in your order of service Good morning and welcome to the first Unitarian Society of Madison This is a community where curious seekers gather to explore spiritual 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 Betsy Hauser and on behalf of the congregation I would like to extend a special welcome to our visitors We are a welcoming congregation So whoever you are or wherever you happen to be on your life journey We celebrate your presence among us Newcomers are encouraged to stay for our fellowship hour after the service and to visit the library Which is directly across from the center doors of this auditorium Bring your drinks and bring your questions Members of our staff and lay ministry will be on hand to welcome you You may also look for persons holding a teal stoneware coffee mug These are members knowledgeable about our faith community who would love to visit with you Experienced guides are generally available to give a building tour after each service So if you would like to learn more about this sustainably designed addition to our national Landmark meeting house Please meet near the large glass window on the left side of the auditorium We welcome children to stay for the duration of the service However, because it is difficult for some in attendance to hear in this lively acoustical environment our Child Haven and the commons are excellent places to retry to retire if a child needs to move around This service can still be seen and heard from those areas and Speaking of noise This would be a good time to turn off all of our electronic devices that might cause a disturbance during the hour I'd now like to I debt to acknowledge those individuals who help our services run so smoothly Marine friend is our sound operator our lay minister this morning is and smiley our greeters our Karen Hill and Anne Hect Our ushers our Douglas Hill and artist Kauffman Our coffee is being served to us this morning by Jean Hills and the flowers the beautiful flowers are Offered by Robert L and Louise Wilson Please note the announcements on the red floors insert in your order of service They describe upcoming events at the society and provide more information about today's activities And I have a special announcement We are looking forward to our annual art fair next Sunday, November 23rd We still have a few volunteer needs to help make this event happen Especially for cleaning up after this art fair has ended I'm one of those folks signed up to clean up. I would love to work with you for on that shift If you can help, please take one of the cards from the special events board in the commons That will tell you how to sign up bless you on Sign up genius for a volunteer spot Alternatively you could just talk to Leslie and of course We hope you plan to come shop with us at the art fair as well There will be great goods to buy great treats to munch on and a great cause to support Our religious education program again Welcome, we hope today's service will stimulate your mind touch your hearts and Stir your spirit Oh We summon ourselves From the demands and delights of the daily round From the dirty dishes and unwaxed floors From unmowed grass and untrimmed bushes From all incompleteness is and not yet started misses from the unholy and the unresolved We summon ourselves to attend to the vision of peace and justice of cleanliness and health of delight and devotion of The lovely and the holy of who we are and what we can do We summon the power of tradition and exhilaration of newness The wisdom of the ages and the knowing of the very young We summon beauty eloquence Poetry and music to be the bearers of our dreams We would open our eyes our ears our minds our hearts to the Amplest dimensions of life We rejoice and manifold promises and possibilities Now, please rise now for the chalice lighting and join me in unison. We cast not our eyes below We say to ourselves We are how we came wounded from struggles triumphant in our survival Entitled by birthright to belong to this the only humankind there is Saying I am included. I belong I am here and I will be and do I Will breathe joy into a desolation. I will breathe peace into conflict. I Will breathe life into destruction. I Will be the earth. I wish to see I am growth and hope and Glee and Now let's turn to our neighbors and exchange a few words of friendly greetings To the adults later about a television show one of my favorite TV shows that I'm wondering if maybe you've ever heard about before You already know what and have any of you oh got a lot of cheers for that one Have any of you seen doctor who yeah? Oh see quite a few people People out there too So one of the themes from the show that you might remember them is the idea that some things are bigger on the inside And then they are on the outside does it sound familiar? Yeah About how not only is the TARDIS the spaceship in the story bigger on the inside than it is on the outside But so are human beings too And so I have a story here that kind of talks about that same idea So for people who maybe aren't as familiar with doctor who can kind of get an idea about this But how people and also some things are bigger inside than outside So this book is called inside all and it's by Margaret Mason and illustrated by Holly Welsh And this first page has a quote by Albert Einstein that says a human being is part of the whole Called by us the universe Inside all is a universe energy flowing Inside the universe is a galaxy Milky and glowing Inside the galaxy is a planet blue and hopeful on the planet is a land green and growing Inside the land is a valley night winds blowing you see the wind Inside the valley is a village twinkling lights showing See all the twinkling lights It's kind of like Christmas. Yeah In fact, this one's gonna seem even more like Christmas Inside the village is a home warm laughter floating Christmas, huh? Inside the home is a space hushed and golden Inside the space is a bed cuddled and cozy On the bed are covers deep and unfolding What do you think's inside the covers? You think a person's in there or cat Under the covers is you and maybe your cat sleepy eyes closing Inside you is a heart pure and glowing Inside your heart is all love overflowing So love is something that can be inside of us But it's so big that it just can't stay inside and so it pours out and goes out to everybody in the world Maybe to your friends and your family, maybe to your pets So we're bigger on the inside than we are on the outside All right So I just want you to think about that a little bit and then the adults and I'm gonna talk about it more Maybe your parents whatever adults brought you here today. We'll talk to you about it, too All right, so we're gonna sing you out to your classes now. The number is 398 Bye Things is from today's children and yesterday's heritage by religious educator Sophia Fawze According to the old story of salvation Death came into the world as a punishment for man's sins It has therefore been something to be afraid of an event that has evoked a feeling of guilt Often people experiencing the coming of death into the inner circles of their affection cry out in their anguish What wrong have we done? Oh God to deserve this punishment Such a concept of death as the greatest of God's punishments upon man is distasteful to those who have accepted death as a natural companion of life It is in marked contrast to the attitude of Jesus toward death Which he saw not as something to be escaped But as the very condition of life When his disciples were bemoaning the prospect of their master's death. He said these unforgettable words Accept a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone But if it die it bringeth forth much fruit The old belief in death as punishment is in marked contrast to the thought of death as a natural consequence of life Without the death of individuals Evolution would have been impossible and the monotonous existence of changeless forms of life would be the dull alternative When one is able to accept a long time view such as this death can be regarded as a blessing rather than a curse Emerging in our culture is an awareness of an everlasting life of Another kind than the one described in Revelation It awaits everyone here in this universe Hard as it is to imagine Nevertheless, it seems to be true that what we have done and been will make a difference Small difference in all that will come here after Such a thought is in line with the belief in the unity of all existence If this interplay of forces this inevitable giving and receiving Goes on between each individual and the totality in so common place and activity as Breathing in and out What shall we say of other more intangible activities? Through which we are continually receiving and giving away Is there an end to this interchange? What is an individual apart from these relationships? We give the seeds of life and new personalities are born from them Well, we experience what is called death The new generation grows to manhood and womanhood They surrender the seeds of their life and still another generation is born Thus life goes on and on Forms change, but life breathing through those forms survives Life has already risen from the dead for every one of us a million times and more and Whose life is this it is yours as well as mine It is mine as well as yours There are no favorites in the everlasting life as Individuals with faces and names and characters we disappear Yet there may be that which never disappears one wonders is There ever an end to the years of our lives in this universe And now Vicki Jones and Michael are going to share a few dramatic excerpts from BBC's dr Who an English accent will not be attempted They're just so alien The aliens are so alien Look at them and they're alien Good thing. I didn't take you to the deep south. Where are you from? All over the place. They all speak English. No, you just hear English It's the gift of the TARDIS the telepathic field it gets gets into your mind and translates It's inside my brain Well in a good way Your machine gets inside my head It gets inside and it changes my mind and you didn't even ask I Didn't think about it like that. No, you were too busy thinking up cheap shots about the deep south Who are you then doctor? What sort of alien are you? I'm I'm just the doctor From what planet it's not as if you'd know where it is. Where are you from? What does it matter? Tell me who you are This is who I am Right here right now. All right, all the counts is the here and then now and This is me here. I am to help. That's not why you're here Then why am I here because? Because I can't see it anymore see what? I'm 907 years old and after a while you just can't see it See what? Everything I look at a star and it's just a big ball of burning gas and I knew how it began And I know how it ends and I'm probably there both times But after a while, it's all just stuff That's the problem you make all of space and time into your backyard and what do you have? backyard But you you you can see it and when you can see it I see it And that's the only reason you took me with you There are worse reasons You're thinking of stopping aren't you you and Rory? No, I mean We haven't made a decision, but you're considering it maybe I Don't know we don't know Well, our lives here have changed so much There was a time there were years when I couldn't live without you When just the whole everyday thing would drive me crazy But since you dropped us back here since you gave us this house, you know, we've built a life I Don't know if I can have both Why? Because they pull at each other They pull at me and because the traveling is starting to feel like running away That's not what it is. Oh, come on. Look at you four days in a lounge and you go crazy But I'm not running away This is one corner of one country in one continent on one planet That's a corner of the galaxy That's a corner of the universe that is forever growing and shrinking and creating and destroying and never remaining the same for a single millisecond and There is so much So much to see me And because it goes so fast. I'm not running away from things I'm running to them before they flare and fade out forever It's all right Our lives won't run the same they can't and one day soon, maybe You'll stop And I've known this for a while And why do you keep coming back for us? Because you were the first the first face that this face saw and You're seared into my heart Amelia pond You always will be I'm running to you and Rory before You fade from me like what so much bigger on the inside You okay? No, I watched her die Shouldn't let it get to me, but it still does. I'm a nurse Letting it get to you You know what that's called Being alive Best thing there is Being alive right now That's all that counts. I'm that nothing's ever exactly like you expect There's always something to surprise you Between the idea and reality Between the motion and the act falls the shadow So the mysterious doctor knows his Elliot. I'm impressed I wouldn't have thought you had time for poetry Lazarus What with your being busy defying the laws of nature and all that? Oh, you're right doctor One's lifetime one lifetime is too short for me to do everything. I like How much more I'll get done in two or three or four it doesn't work like that Some people live more in 20 years than others do in 80 It's not the time that matters It's the person we're all stories in the end Just make it a good one. Hey others and sisters in faith. I have a confession to make I Feel that it is wise at the beginning of any relationship For a person to be open and honest about certain matters So before we get too far into today's worship journey together I feel that I must tell you something very important. I am a nerd No, I know it might come as somewhat of a shock to you After all just because you're a friendly neighborhood ministerial intern makes science fiction references and newsletter Articles and we'll be throwing a Dungeons and Dragons party next year doesn't mean she's a total geek It is sometimes easy to overlook the signs. I know but now I must come clean Yes, my friends. I am indeed a nerd and more than that. I enjoy being a nerd I flip when I see 20-sided dice. I drool over stargate Star Wars and Star Trek I wish I had a time-travel device to go with the doctor who scarf around my neck. I Also sometimes break into random music theater references as a bonafide nerd I tend to prefer reading books to watching television, but there are a few exceptions. I Don't always watch TV, but when I do I watch shows like doctor who Now I know that we're not all Huvvians here, so I'd like to give you a brief rundown of the show Hopefully without any spoilers Last week Michael opened his sermon with a brief story about the trickster mink Who after stealing the Sun for his people proceeded to steal time as well in The television show doctor who the main character the doctor also stole time More specifically the doctor stole time and relative dimensions in space No one in the show as a spaceship called the TARDIS Yet in many ways the show is written less like a trickster tale and more like a modern-day miracle play in Medieval times Catholics used to present dramatic productions of the lives and adventures of the Saints These miracle plays focused on how the Saints intervened miraculously in the lives of regular people Doctor who is sort of a humanist version of that? Like a saint the mysterious character known only as the doctor Here's and responds to cries for help from earth and other planets He does not intervene in the lives of ordinary people in a supernatural way However, whether divine or with magical powers Arthur C. Clarke. Yes another nerd reference. I apologize once claimed that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic This is absolutely the case with doctor who the doctor runs around in a magic But not with a magic wand but with a sonic screwdriver a device that is part lockpick Part medical device mark medical scanner part remote control and part tracking device The doctor also runs around willy-nilly throughout all time in space in a police box The box is bigger on the inside than on the outside It fades in and out of existence in random places It has made mysterious and ridiculously Anachronistic appearances throughout him in human history To the uninitiated the police box certainly seems magical if absurd However in the universe of doctor who the police box is called the TARDIS or again time and relative dimensions in space The TARDIS is not magical, but instead is a sentient shapeshifting time traveling spaceship The thing is so advanced that the doctor doesn't even know how to operate it properly It makes this it's distinctive whirring noise and looks consistently like a police box for a reason The doctor flies it mostly by banging on this or that shouting at it and pulling random levels And then there's the doctor himself The doctor is portrayed as practically immortal Capable of regenerating into a new incarnation each time his body is vaguely wounded And like I said before he's portrayed as a saint-like being He hears the prayers of people in need and has appeared numerous times throughout human history to intervene His interventions may seem miraculous, but really are accomplished with just the right combination of reason technological aptitude daring luck and a dash of sheer audacity He seems practically godlike at times But is really a is basically a time-traveling shape-shifting humanoid extraterrestrial called a timeboard Yep, doctor who is a humanist miracle play all right emphasizing science reason naturalistic explanations and our topic today the amazing potential of human beings In fact many of the themes of the television show relate back to our unitarian universe list first principle the inherent worth and dignity of every person as You saw earlier in the dramatic excerpts from the show an ongoing trope in doctor who is the idea that things are bigger on the inside than they are outside This image is usually used to describe the TARDIS the police box-shaped spaceship that indeed is far larger inside and then it appears to be on the outside with Libraries and swimming pools various rooms on the inside This paradox continually mystifies and delights the humans who encounter the ship for the first time But then when the TARDIS is given a human form and a voice with which to speak She is herself astonished that human beings also appear so much bigger on the inside than on the outside and Thus a whole new view of human worth and dignity becomes possible We humans are not immortal beings, but mortal beings We do not flit on a whim through random points in time We are born progressed through life from one moment to another precious moment and Then we die our lives here on earth Against the awesome March of Endless Time are so so fragile our time so very very brief In a way our worth and dignity are deeply tied to this To the fact that we are immensely improbable creatures in the first place Rare on a cosmic scale and rare still for the brevity of our lives We have worth and dignity because we burn so brightly so passionately Here in our little corner of the universe in our brief window of time But our worth and dignity do not just hinge on the length of our lives but more importantly on the depth of our living in Last week's reflection Michael reminded us that the mystics tell us that eternity lies outside of time entirely and That it can be apprehended. In fact, it can only be apprehended in this immediate instant Each individual moment of our lives then is also so much bigger on the inside than on the outside This notion too comes up in doctor who When a human being demands to know who he is and where he comes from The doctor insists that he can only be known in the moment He says this is who I am right here right now All right, all that counts is here and now and this is me Even this nearly immortal being who has lived over a thousand years and changed forms many many times Must live his life moment by moment Can only be encountered and understood moment by moment and How true is that of human life as well? Even our memories and our dreams and our worries about the future are experienced here and now Blending with the rich particularities of each present moment The current state of our bodies whether healthy or hurting or standing in snow or sunshine The current state of our relationships whether fulfilling or shallow or conflicted the current state of our souls whether connected and aware and whole or Isolated and oblivious and broken All of these streams of our being float together to form us in the present moment to form our experience of the present moment We are in each moment So much bigger on the inside than we are on the outside However, the title of my reflection is of course, we are all stories in the end not we are all moments in the end You heard the line earlier in the brief dramatic excerpts from the show a Story is not an endless moment Experienced outside of time, but a series of moments experienced in time a Story is a progression of acts and experiences that are linked together by meaning and driven by character We are each of us a story a very long story That is even bigger on the inside than on the outside. Just think about it Think of your life as a closed book Now imagine opening that book. What all is in there? Pages piled upon pages words heaped up upon words Each word conveying ideas and images one after another Each of those linked like stars to a constellation a whole cosmos of other ideas and words and images Within each word are letters and those letters make sounds Sounds formed by lips and teeth and tongue and lungs Sounds formed into little packages of meaning by an intricate dance of muscles and bones of air moving in and out of the body Communicating everything in the story to those listening Touching and connecting with other stories other lives other people Our lives are rich or bigger on the inside than they are on the outside Not only because of the rarity of our existence The depth of our experiences each moment and the intricate story woven as each moment passes into moment Our lives are also bigger on the inside than they are on the outside because of how our lives Touch the lives of other people and are touched in return In a sense each of us does not merely live in ourselves, but in others as well Pablo Nerudo wrote in owed to things. Oh irrevocable river of things No one can say that I loved only fish or the plants of the jungle in the field That I loved only those things that leap and climb Desire and survive It's not true Many things conspire to tell me the whole story Not only did they touch me or my hand touch them They were so close that they were a part of my being They were so alive and me that they lived half my life and will die half my death In the Sophia Fawze reading earlier today the question was raised. Is there an end to this interchange? And whose life is this? It is yours as well as mine. It is mine as well as yours as Individuals with faces and names and characters we disappear yet. There may be that which never disappears One wonders is there ever an end to the years of our lives in this universe? We pour ourselves out into others as they pour out of themselves into us Linking one person to another one generation to the next Throughout all of our time as a species on this beautiful blue and green planet Yet when it comes to the amount of time our species will have the television show doctor Who may actually be a little more optimistic than we are today in this global moment? At one point the doctor says of human beings Homo sapiens what an inventive invincible species It's only a few million years since they crawled up out of the mud and learned to walk puny defenseless bipeds They've survived flood famine and plague They've survived cosmic wars in holocausts and now here. They are out among the stars Waiting to begin a new life Ready to out-sit eternity They're indomitable To be fair this glowing vision of an indomitable humanity Living out among the stars wasn't put forth today when our species and indeed all species are threatened by the realities of climate change I don't know if the writers of the show were aware of global warming back in 1975 when that episode from which the quote came was aired They probably were not aware at all Though the first calculations of human-induced climate change were made back in the 1800s Scientific consensus did not begin to form until the 1980s Today, however, doctor whose vision of a humanity living out among the stars is somewhat bittersweet We live today in what spiritual teacher Joanna Macy has called the great unraveling as Atmospheric carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases continue to increase the world is getting warmer Species like amphibians are dying and People are being driven from their homes and their homelands by climate change With no present escape from this planet that we are destroying no worrying blue TARDIS to whisk us away The idea that we might one day inhabit the stars can seem unlikely if not outright absurd Yet doctor who is not merely a modernist television show with an overly rosy view of humanity It does not make the mistake of assuming that we humans will always do the right thing And it will be all progress upward and onward forever To borrow a phrase from the Unitarian minister James Freeman Clark At numerous points throughout the show The doctor is furious with human beings and is well aware of our destructive capacities At one point after discovering that human beings as a species have committed an unspeakable atrocity The doctor pushes away his human companions shouting nobody human has anything to say to me today Yet even there human beings come through for the doctor One person stands up to him stopping him from murdering an innocent creature to save humanity And she finds a solution to save everyone She does it by diving into her memories Leaning into all she has seen and heard and known Not only her own experiences of the dilemma she faces But also her experience of the doctor And then knowing it could kill everyone But will save one innocent victim of human greed and fear She saves everyone The show is less interested in the worth and dignity of humanity as a whole Less confident in our collective capacity for goodness And more focused on the inherent potential in every single human individual To stand up against great odds and do the right thing It is not a potential that is always or even usually reached But human potential for goodness is something that nevertheless has salvational power We can choose to bless rather than curse the world As individuals even if not always collectively Even if in the end our species is unable to leave the planet Let alone venture out among the stars Due to our collective actions or forces outside of our control Still even then the way each of us individually live our lives matters We have the potential to be good Even if the future is wide open and our ultimate fate is far from assured We do it by tapping into ourselves By drawing strength and vision from the inner well That is so much bigger on the inside than we are on the outside And now I invite you to share in this morning's offering Today's collection will go to support St. Vinnie's food pantry Please give generously And a couple of elves lurking out in the commons before the service today There's some FUS members who organize our annual family to family holiday giving program This is our kickoff weekend After today's service you can visit the elves The elves and sign up to help all or part of a needy family by purchasing gifts from their wishlist Donating food carts or food cards or just donating money Be sure to read the touching letter from a grateful social worker that we've posted That alone is enough to make you want to participate We gather each week as a community of memory and of hope To this time and place we bring our whole and at times our broken selves We carry with us the joys and the sorrows of the recent past And seek here a place where they might be received Shared and celebrated We pause now to acknowledge that Henry Hart has passed away He died on Wednesday, but we will be celebrating his life His almost 98 years of life this afternoon At 3 p.m At the Arboretum Center So if you have a chance to go over there I'm sure his family would much appreciate it And in addition to those we just mentioned We would also acknowledge any unarticulated joys and sorrows that remain among us And that as a community we hold with equal concern in our hearts Let us sit quietly together for a few moments in the spirit of empathy and of hope By virtue of our brief time together today May our burdens be lightened and our hopes be expanded And now please turn to number 354 for our closing hymn We're reading or we're singing verses one through three only Perseus meteor We are the living remnants of time and all that has come to pass in its wake Briefly shining lights on the way to eternity We are only visible to the naked eye for an instant Time to shine like the stardust you are May the light of our time on earth shine to bless the world and each other Shine blessed be and please be seated for the postlude and for the choral piece