 Yeah, this is it. Come 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 calls us to work for love, equity and justice as we together seek to be a force of good in the world. My name is Vicki Jones, and on behalf of the congregation, I would like to extend a special welcome to visitors. We are a welcoming congregation, so whoever you are and wherever you are on your journey in life, we celebrate your presence among us. As we gather in this place and time, let us remember that we are all visitors in this life. We come together to find meaning and hope with all the other visitors in this life. So let us join our hearts and minds together as we celebrate life together. This is a perfect time to remind you to quiet your devices as I invite you to join me now 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. Let's rise in all the ways that we do and sing together hymn number 57, All Beautiful the March of Days. As we remain standing for our opening words in the lighting of the chalice, let us reach the place of self, the place that is not alien to truth. Let us wash over with peace and serenity, with fierce longing for light and heart, with living strength flowing in our veins, bring ourselves into fearlessness and into trust. Continuing with our lighting of the chalice and the words by Reverend Leslie Takahashi printed in your order of service, together we say, all that we have ever loved and all that we have ever been, stand with us on the brink of all that we aspire to create. A deeper love, a larger love, a more embracing hope, a deeper joy in this life we share. I invite you to turn towards each other and offer a warm greeting. Thank you. Good morning, my dear. Hello there, sir. Beautiful music. Hello again, Alan. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Glad you're here. So we invite anyone who'd like to come forward for our story time. Just join us up here. Come on. Come on. Come on. Anyone who's very welcome up here? That's okay. So here we are beginning December, and we begin a new theme, and our theme this month is the theme of peace, and we move into a season that has many holidays and holy days, and tonight begins one of the holy days in the Jewish tradition. Does anyone know what holiday begins tonight? Hanukkah. Hanukkah, exactly. So we will begin with our holiday season with a story written about Hanukkah, and it sort of fits into the theme of the service today where we look at the various ways that we celebrate and honor our holidays and holy days, and how sometimes what we think will happen may not be exactly as the day or the evening unfolds. And so our story this morning is Hanukkah Bear by Eric A. Kimmel. Old bear awoke from his winter sleep. He poked his nose outside his den. What was that? Something to eat. Old bear's empty stomach rumbled. He shook himself all over. Then he lumbered out of his den to follow the delicious smell. Bubba Brena took the last potato latke from the pan and put it in the oven with the others. Bubba Brena was 97 years old and did not hear or see as well as she used to. But she still made the best potato latkes in the village. Every year at Hanukkah time all of her friends came to her house on the edge of the forest. How they loved those latkes. Bubba Brena always made plenty, but this year she made twice as many as usual. Tonight was special. Tonight the rabbi was coming. Bubba Brena hurried to get ready. Just then she heard a thump at the door. She opened it, rabbi, you're here early. How nice to see you. Grumph growled the old bear. Well, happy Hanukkah to you too, please come in, she said. Old bear walked into the house. I'll take your coat, rabbi. My, how thick it is, Bubba Brena tugged at old bear's fur. The old bear roared. Oh, you want to keep your coat on? Do you? Well, that's all right. It is kind of chilling in here. Old bear's nose tritched. Rumpf. Thank you, rabbi. How kind of you to say that. The latkes will taste even better than they smell. Old bear followed his nose to the oven. Rargg. Rabbi, she said, I'm surprised at you. You know we don't eat until we light the menorah. Grr. That's right. I knew you were teasing. I light the candle while you say the blessing. Rumpf. Bubba Brena struck a match and lit the shamah's candle. Then she lit the one for the first night. Old bear muttered and growled, rumpf, growl, rrr. But she said, who has kept us alive, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this season? Oh, rabbi, you say the blessing so beautifully. Bubba Brena sat down at the table, and Old Bear sat beside her. Let's play dreidel. We'll use these nuts. Old bear cracked one with his teeth. The rabbi, you won't have any nuts for the game if you eat them. Stop. Grr. Grr. Grr. Grr. Grr. Grr. Grr. Grr. Grr. Grr. Grr. Gimmel. I win! Bubba Brena swept the nuts into her apron. Grrr. The Old Bear growled. Don't be angry, rabbi, it's only a game. She tossed him a nut. Old Bear begged for more. No, rabbi, no more nuts. It's time for dinner Bubba Brena opened the oven door and took out a platter piled high with steaming potato latkes. bear sniffed the latkes as she set them on the table. Do you prefer sour cream or jam, Bubba Braina asked. Rrrr, the old bear growled. Jam, I thought so. Bubba Braina smeared the five big latkes with jam and stacked them on old bear's plate. Old bear gobbled them right down. Bubba Braina laughed, you should use a fork. You have jam all over your beard. She wet a towel and wiped old bear's face. I must tell you, rabbi, you eat like a bear. Rrrr, I'm hungry like a bear, so I eat like a bear. I can see that, said Bubba Braina and laughed. Old bear ate and ate until the latkes were gone. He felt drowsy, and so his head flopped on Bubba Braina's lap. Rabbi, you're so sleepy. But who wouldn't be sleepy after such a meal? All the latkes are gone. You know, it's time to go home. But before you leave, I have a Hanukkah present for you. Bubba Braina took a red scarf from her knitting basket. She wrapped it around old bear's neck. I made it myself. Grrrr, old bear said, and then licked Bubba Braina's face. Bubba Braina blushed. Oh, rabbi, at my age. Old bear shuffled to the door. Rumfegrald as he walked into the night. Well, good night to you too, rabbi, and happy Hanukkah. Bubba Braina was washing dishes when she heard another knock at the door. I wonder who that is? She said, and she heard Shalom Buddha Bubba Braina. All her friends stood at the door wishing her a happy Hanukkah. Shalom, everybody, Bubba Braina said. How nice to see you. I'm sorry. I don't have any more latkes. The rabbi came by, and he ate them all. Bubba Braina, don't you recognize me? It was the rabbi. The rabbi couldn't have eaten your latkes, everyone said. He's been with us at the synagogue. Bubba Braina rubbed her forehead. Something strange is happening, she said. Rabbi, I think there is an imposter going around impersonating you. He looks like you. He talks like you. He even has your beard. Just then the children cried, look at the floor, bear tracks. A bear? And I thought it was the rabbi, said Bubba Braina, who had to sit down and soon she began to laugh. That was a very clever bear, or maybe a very foolish Bubba Braina. Oh, well, let the bear have his happy Hanukkah. I certainly had a happy Hanukkah, too, and so will you all, my dear friends. Bring some potatoes from the cellar, fetch my grater and my bowl. Everybody has to help. You too, Rabbi, if we all work together, we'll soon have the latkes for everyone. Deep in the forest, old bear slumbered in his den. His stomach was full of potato latkes. The warm woolen scarf was wrapped snugly around his neck. Pleasant dreams, old bear, and happy Hanukkah. So there are many ways to celebrate our holidays and holy days, and I hope in this month we explore many ways to do that together. So we will rise in all the ways we do, and we'll sing him number 221 to send you out into your classes, and we look forward to hearing about your adventures later. Have a good morning in the class. Light one candle for the Maccabee children, with thanks that their light didn't die. Light one candle for the pain they endured, when their right to exist was denied. Light one candle for the terrible sacrifice, justice and freedom demand. But light one candle for the wisdom to know, when the peacemaker's time is at hand. Don't let it's lasted for so many. Don't let the light go out, let it shine through our love and our tears. Light one candle for the strength that we need, to never become our own foe. Light one candle for those who are suffering, the pain we learned so long ago. One candle for that anger won't tear us apart, and light is together, with peace as the song in our heart. It's lasted for so many, let it shine through our love and our tears. What is the memory that's valued so highly, we keep it alive in that flame? What's the commitment to those who have died, when we cry out they've not died in vain? From this far, that justice would somehow preface. This is the burden, and this is the promise, and this is why we will not fail. It's lasted for so many, let it shine through our love and our tears. So our time for all ages offered one sort of vision of how to engage the holidays as they are. And in a very different mood is a second understanding of engaging the holidays, taken from the writing of Unitarian Universalist Jane Mulden and her writing arose in snow. The year my brother died, my family tried to pretend our sorrow wasn't real, and we kept to all our regular Christmas traditions. Although we were crazed with grief, we tried to fake it, and we were all miserable. Later, when my father died, my mother decided we would take a trip for the holidays instead of staying home and being overwhelmed by the memories. But it won't be like Christmas my teenage brother protested. It can never be like it has been before, replied my mother. Concord, Massachusetts was our destination. We checked in at the historic Inn on the public square and spent three days exploring the Wintry Village. We walked across the bridge from which the shot that was fire that was heard around the world. We discovered paths in the snow around Emerson's house and the Alcott's house. We slid across the ice on Walden Pond. It was a wonderful adventure, but at the same time, we were all unhappy. We spent Christmas Eve in the Inn's pub, and I was not alone in crying myself to sleep that night. Early on Christmas morning, my mother and I rose at dawn, leaving my brother to sleep. We slipped out for a walk. It was a frosty, but clear morning. A fresh layer of snow had utterly muffled the town. For deep, unspoken reasons, we headed up a hill to the old cemetery where many great authors and American leaders were buried. We were looking for the grave of poet Henry David Thoreau. The dirt walkway up the hill was quite steep and coated in thick ice. We pulled ourselves up hand over hand using the iron handrail. As we reached the top, the steam of our breaths appeared to be the only lively warmth in the chilly pink dawn. After a search, we spied Thoreau's grave, a large tombstone cresting out of a snowdrift. And there, to our astonishment and joy, lay a single red rose. No one else was in sight, but some lone soul had made his or her pilgrimage in the first light of Christmas Day to salute that free spirit. My family no longer does Christmas as we once did. Each year now is unique, and I like it that way. I have fewer expectations of Christmas and I enjoy myself more. I live less in the past and try to appreciate my life here and now. Let go of what the holidays should be and try to live it in your own way. You may find joy where you least expect it, a red rose in the snow. Hearings are reading. I don't have any preconceived notion that in this room there is any one singular understanding of what happens during the month of December. What holidays you celebrate, what you bring to this time. But I am quite certain that there is a world of complex feelings in this congregation about the month of December and all that it brings. I found over and over again in Unitarian Universalist congregations that it is helpful as we enter the month of December and all of the holidays in this time to spend a little bit of preparation in thinking about how we want to move into this month to decide for ourselves what these holy days and holidays will mean this year and in this time. Because we certainly will get a lot of unhelpful framing of what December may be about. And especially unfortunate in this time because this month offers us important and very ancient gifts if we will but find a way to see and experience them anew. And even deeper than that I believe that this month offers us a chance to participate in a very old and sacred important right of our humanity. One that is suggested by the poetry of Max Kutz when he writes, When love is felt, our fear is known. When holidays and holy days and such times come. When anniversaries arrive by calendar or consciousness. When seasons come as seasons do old and known but somehow new. When lives are born and people die. When something sacred is sensed in soil or sky mark the time. Respond with thought or prayer or smile or grief. Let nothing slip between the fingers of your mind for all of these things or holy things that we will not cannot find again. So as we come into this month in the various holidays and winter itself for a moment let's reflect on perhaps a different way of entering this time. We have been long awestruck by the full range of the experience of winter itself. The ancient Romans wrote about the spiritual aspects of the winter months at great length and the Sufis explored the various images of the cold and the winter months in their poetry and how deeply the time was connected to something soulful. And over and over again winter poets have explored how life and death are condensed powerfully within the months of winter cold and the long night. And yet our contemporary existence has done much to try to separate us and give us more distance from that very old truth. An ancient and profound image of winter still is a powerful part of who we are. As the ancient Sanskrit poem refers to winter as being as cruel as a hypocrite's embrace or the medieval period so filled with death and difficulty and certainly aided and abetted by winter that the writer wrote the soil and summer with flowers glad winter's razor death all away erase. So while winter poets and sages have gazed into the distance they invite us still to explore the deeper power of this time. Madeleine Lange wrote a new year can begin only when the old year ends in northern climates. This is especially apparent as rain turns to snow puddles to ice. The sun rises later and sets earlier and each day it climbs less high in the sky. One time I went with my children to the planetarium and I was fascinated to hear the lecturers say that the primitive people used to watch the sun drop lower on the horizon in great terror because they were afraid that one day it was going to go solo that it would never rise again. They would be left in unremitting night. There would be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth and the terror of the great darkness would fall upon them and then just as it seemed that there would never be another dawn the sun would start to come back. Each day it would rise higher and set later. She concludes somewhere in the depths of our unconsciousness we share that primordial fear and where there is the first indication that the days are going to lengthen our hearts to lift with relief. The end has not come joy and so a new year makes its birth known. I believe it is the case that somewhere deeply engraved in the fabric of our collective humanity is this age old reality of both the winter like experiences and the greater power of the change of the seasons all of which may help us connect with deep meaning in this time and through the cycle of the year if we will let it. But it asks of us to come to the time with a renewed sense of openness to create within this time a sense of holiness to let ourselves recognize within it the power that flows much deeper than many of the stories that our current culture have heaped on top of this time in one of the most significant shifts that needs to happen to engage that deeper story is we have to understand that this time is about something more power powerful than just happy happy joy joy far deeper than that is the original intent of holidays and holy days holy days were never meant to be just about celebrating and honoring the things that make us intensely grateful and happy holy days embrace the full span of human existence they remind us of the reality of death they remind us of loss and difficulty and of anger and of frustration and alienation as well as joy and gratitude and connection and so when we come to this time expecting only one range of our existence to be acknowledged we are setting ourselves up for failure again and again it is only when we bring our full lives our lives exactly as they really are to this time that we can begin to understand the holiness of this season because just as winter is yes an eternal metaphor for death and the beginning of the slow rebirth it is also many other things it is a time of playfulness as any impromptu snowball flight will attest to it is a time where we are especially aware of the power of the warm heart we are especially grateful for the ways that we connect in love and caring and warmth with each other those deeper lessons weave themselves into the tapestry of the truth of this time if we will let it and nothing will separate us more quickly from that depth than oh I don't know say going to the mall for instance where the the gods of commerce have great power the throngs of people crush in together and we can in moments find ourselves adrift in the mythology that our culture gives us about this time but we can choose something different what if this holiday season you began exactly where you are if you thought about what is the real state of your most important relationships perhaps one way to honor this season is to spend some time making reparation to some of those friendships and loving relationships that may need that extra tlc in this time when we become so engrossed in what presence we will give and receive maybe it's a time to find the ways that we've already received great gifts in our life and are called in a very heartfelt way to return that generosity maybe it is taking a few quiet moments in the midst of the busyness and just really listening to what is going on inside of you what is really true for your life right now and letting that truth be your guide through this season it might take a little bit of time some conversations with people you trust but wouldn't that perhaps be a more authentic way to celebrate this time i wonder what holy days will come for you this winter what difference it might make if you were to begin where you are and if you were to let your life guide you through this time with that understanding ancient rhythms and stories and the season itself might speak to you in a very different way and speak to you as you really are now beyond the noisy malls our crowded schedules the ubiquitous overuse of holiday tunes there is something much older and deeper that's flowing around and within you and it is just waiting to do its work in your life in your life as it is now let yourself be present to that truth and let it lead you into what matters most more on that in a moment 13 years i lived in bellingham washington and one of the gifts of living in that part of the country is that i was only about 15 miles or so from the canadian border and so when i was especially overwhelmed with my life and ministry in bellingham an easy way for me to transport myself into a very different world was to drive across the border park at a park and ride and get on the sky train and within a few minutes i was in one of the largest most international and diverse cities in the world vancouver british columbia and so i would do that as often as i could and one year in october even though it was a busy time i made my way over because i needed to think about life and get ready for the upcoming time in the congregation and i made a deal with myself because it was so busy that i would do some work while i was on the sky train so i stuck in my pocket a little paperback of holiday stories that i took out so that i could begin to get a jump on choosing the perfect story for christmas eve and as i was making my way through the book i looked up and there weren't very many people on the sky train it was monday morning but there was this older guy right across the way from me and he was staring at me with the funniest look on his face and he just said i have to ask why in october are you looking at a book of holiday stories and i thought about all sorts of things that i could say but i just finally was honest and said oh i'm a minister i'm trying to figure out like a story for christmas eve and he got the strangest most thoughtful look on his face and he stood up and he came and he sat right next to me and he said do do you mind if i tell you my christmas eve story this is why i never tell anyone i'm a minister but he looked so thoughtful and so eager to tell me i mean what else could i say but go for it and so he began he said one christmas was especially horrible i was in the midst of a divorce and that entire holiday season was an awful blur i actually have very little memory of that time and so as i made my way through an entire cycle back to the next holiday season i was absolutely dead set on trying to have that holiday be different and yet i was so overwhelmed with work and setting up my new life still in my bachelor apartment on grandville over a very busy area in vancouver i still was just figuring everything out and before i knew it it was christmas eve again and really i had done nothing to prepare for the holidays and so i made up my mind to do something i got out of the apartment and began to walk down the street i had no plan in mind but i knew something would hit me to help me celebrate this time and before i knew it i walked by the first store that i noticed which was a hardware store of all things and so i just walked in and looked around and right in front of me was a table of on special holiday stuff that they were trying to get rid of and there was this perfect little small table top christmas tree with the lights embedded in the branches and so and it was half price so i grabbed it and took it back to my apartment stuck it on my dining room table plugged it in and stepped back and only then did i realize that i had not purchased any ornaments or anything to go on this bear but bright little christmas tree i thought for a moment and i realized that i had all sorts of things in my storage unit just downstairs and at least half of those things had been packed in haste by my wife as she was trying to expedite my leaving the house and so i went down and looked through some of those boxes and sure enough in one of them was an old box marked christmas and i pulled it out and took it upstairs and opened it and it turned out they were all of my christmas decorations from my college and young adult years so i began to take them out and i noticed that most of the decorations from the college years seemed to be made mostly out of beer cans so i had a beer can santa on my christmas tree and a beer can Rudolph and an entire set of garlands made out of beer can tabs that was really quite festive and so i put it around my tree and i looked back in the box and there was a big plastic baggie filled with ornaments and i remembered that one year in my first apartment i had gone to a local thrift store and they had had like a bag of ornaments for two dollars and i had purchased it and it if there was ever a collection of the isle of misfit toys of ornaments it was that bag the ugliest ornaments ever most of them had half of the paint on them still but i took each of them out and lovingly put them on that tree and i stepped back and looked at it and it didn't yet look like it needed to in the back of my mind it was beginning to come to me that there was one other set of ornaments in my apartment that i had almost forgotten about but that i had very carefully made sure to bring with me and i thought for a moment where they might be and went and looked in my bedroom closet and there in the back corner was the shoebox that i knew was there i got it out and took it to the tree and opened it up inside there were five ornaments the last five ornaments that my wife and i had exchanged with each other that those last five years of our marriage when our relationship was waning and we looked for anything we could to try to renew our sense of connection and joy with each other and so one by one i took out each of those ornaments that were given to me from my by my now ex-wife each of them had on them either on the bottom or on the ornament itself the year that they had been exchanged and i placed the first four on the tree putting them in different places and i stopped for a moment because i knew there was one more ornament in the box and i knew that that ornament was the very last ornament that we exchanged when such a horrible year when i was in the midst of chemotherapy and we both knew but had not yet said that so much had changed in our lives that we would never be able to reclaim that sense of really being a couple and yet that ornament that she gave me was such a real and authentic gift i went and it was still carefully wrapped to protect it and i unwrapped it and pulled it out and looked at it it was a replica of a snow globe and inside of the globe was a little boy that was dressed for winter and he seemed to be tossing something up in the air and floating up above at the top of the snow globe was a single bright star and on that ornament was one single word the word hope and i realized that her gift that year in the midst of the chemotherapy and in the midst of our great fear about the future was indeed a very sincere gift of hope perhaps one of the last things given purely out of a sense of love and connection between the two of us and so i took that ornament and i placed it at the very top of the tree underneath the light at the very pinnacle and i stepped back and i turned out the lights and looked at that tree in the gentle light of the glow of the of that beautiful little tree and as we sat on the sky train together both of us sort of in this very thoughtful place he said to me you know as i looked at that at that tree it was like so much of my adult life was right there in front of me all of it the silliness and the joy the difficulty and the struggle the love but as i looked that day most of all a sense of hope and as i took it all in in the soft glow of that light finally i was ready for my holiday to begin what is it that you carry into this time how is it inviting you forward into your life what gift is it waiting to bestow if you will open your mind in your heart may this month help us explore that and more together amen as we move into our time of the offering i will ask you to note that we are trying at something a little bit different we are putting less information in the order of service about the outreach offering recipient but more information in the red floors and so i hope you will take a moment to find out more about the work of the road home dan county and how your generosity will help that work as we move into our offer to worry may we be aware of all of the ways that we are called to be generous and loving in spirit and may such a spirit inspire us as we give and receive we are grateful for the ways that we work together to Sunday after Sunday have this time together and so we take a moment to offer our gratitude to those who helped with this service today we are grateful for the work of our sound operator mark schultz for vicki jones our worship associate for corn parent and mark schweitzer douglas hill pamela mcmullen and karen hill who wear our greeters and ushers we are grateful for genie hills and the hospitality of coffee this morning and for karen rose gredler who is our welcome and info table staff person we are grateful for all of the ways that you help and hope that you will find ways to assist us in doing the work that we do together there are many ways that you can do that one of the ways that you can do that today is if you have not done so yet you can pick up a guest at your table box and assist us in helping our unitarian universalist service committee make a difference in the larger world also there are still opportunities at the giving tree you can learn about how you can help make a difference this holiday season for some of the families served by the road home in dane county and the neomyah center for urban development i hope you'll check that out as well in the commons as we move into the cares of the congregation may we take just a moment to center ourselves and bring ourselves into this time with the spirit of openness and connection to each other in this room to those in this community who are not here and even further than that may we let the very act of our breath coming in and out of our bodies be an invitation to connect again with our life as we breathe in love and breathe out peace and know that we each come into this space with joys and concerns that are spoken and still silent in our minds and hearts and for just a moment hold your own deep thoughts and know that you are surrounded by people also in their own lives their worries their joys and how deeply held we are in this web of life there are many things that we remember it in particular we remember with joy today that eric sieverson one of your recent past interns and a member of my first congregation in meguanago wisconsin many years ago this last friday received his passing grade with the ministerial fellowship committee which is an important right of passage and moving forward to become a unitary universalist minister so i know that eric has worked long and hard and very well for that wonderful moment and so our joy goes out to him and family for all the joys and sorrows that are present in this place we hold them in the fullness of our heart remembering that we are deeply connected to each other in the larger world grateful for the miracle of our lives and from that place we are called to care to remember and to love may it be so amen and blessed be may we rise in all the ways that we do we will join together in our closing hymn which is either printed in your order of service or will be projected behind me it is not in your hymnal will we sing together let winter come let winter come its story when days are short let winter winter come great star glow and now as we prepare to go forth from this place may that deep spirit live within and around you may it help you make your way through the season and find a deeper connection with yourself with each other with the spirit of life we extinguish this chalice but not the light of that deep wisdom not the warmth of love and compassion not the fire of our commitment to what matters most in our lives these will remain in your life until you come back with us again may we take another moment together before we move forward into our day to enjoy and worship another gift of music