 There's a lot of dance in there, but what we're gonna do is we're just gonna create what happens, we're just gonna do something, we're just gonna do something, we're just gonna do something. Yeah. I don't know, I actually need to check the lines here, I don't know. Oh! I don't know. There they are, we're gonna stop, we're gonna see a bit. There are guys out there. Here everyone, I think so too, that part of the video. Turn to me today. There's a lot of work in there, work. Good morning. Welcome to the first Unitarian Society of Madison. This is a community where curious and compassionate seekers gather to explore spiritual, ethical, and social issues in an accepting and nurturing environment. Unitarian Universalism calls us to work toward equity, love, and justice in our congregations and in the world. My name is Elizabeth Barrett, 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 life's journey, we celebrate your presence among us. So this would be a good time to silence your cell phones, because I now invite you to join me in a few moments of silence for contemplation, meditation, prayer, as we settle in and come fully into this time and place together. Please rise in body or spirit for our in-gathering hymn. Number 295. Happy New Year. Remaining standing for our opening words and our chalice lighting, we invoke the words of Reverend Linda Susan Ulrich, who wrote, Open the doors. Push on looming wooden arches embroidered with ironwork. Brace shoulders against the weight of history unmoved. Slough off the musty smell of unused joy and stored up sorrow. Knock rust off the hinges if you have to and let your breath proceed you inside. Open the doors more. Make room for a shaft of sunlight to cross the threshold. Give the dustmote something to dance about. Peek through a single slice of possibility and name even the half-hidden truths you see. Open the door wider still. Pour yourself through the gap. Strut or sneak or sidle as suits you best. Cleanse whatever scrapes catch your skin and bind up the wounds that keep you from entering whole. Open the doors as far as they will go. Draw on the strength of the stones beneath you. Ground yourself in a firm sense of who you are. Stand as a beacon welcoming the next seeker and shine far beyond the lintel and sill. Continuing with Reverend Ulrich's words as our chalice lighting, may we join our voices together printed in your order of service as we say. May we be open to all that we are. Heighten and deepen our connections to the world around us. Broaden our definition of neighbor. Grow into the largest target for grace that we can muster and pray to become a gateway for even greater love and compassion. Indeed, open the doors, my friends, and may we now greet each other warmly this morning. May we? May we? May we? Will that happen? We may. It's down there. I, you know, I mix it up. Greetings. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Kelly is. Today we continue with worship and celebrate together one of the most meaningful moments in our congregation's life, the ride of dedication. This is a time when we who are gathered here in this meeting house have the privilege to welcome children into our family and religious community. Today it is our cherished assignment to welcome and pledge our care to Leopold Edgar Ball and Carmen June Pabone. Today, all of us gathered here are more than casual witnesses to life's gifts and nature's marvelous creations. We are invited to share the joy which these parents take in their children and to enter more fully into their lives. I believe in my heart that I speak for us all when I say that we are grateful for the privilege. We continue this time honoring this time-honored ritual because children are our present delight and by them we are reminded of life's small joys and wisdoms. Antoine de Saint-Experie writes, In a house which becomes a home, one hands down and another takes up the heritage of mind and heart. Laughter and tears, musings and deeds, love, like a carefully loaded ship crosses the gulf between generations. Come here today with our ship carefully loaded and with the gifts that Leopold and Carmen truly need, ears to listen, arms to embrace, a world of experience for their encouraging minds. We are blessed by their presence among us and pray their lives will bless them. I'd like to now invite our parents and children to join us up here on the chancel. And if you will rise in all the ways that we do and join together in the pledge of the congregation that is found in your order of service, for the gift of childhood whose innocence, laughter and curiosity bring hope, joy and new understanding into our lives, we lift thankful hearts, we welcome Leopold and Carmen into this spiritual community and extend to their parents our love and support in the joys and challenges of caregiving. As these children grow, we will share with them our insights, our values and our dreams that they may enjoy the rich benefits of our religious heritage. Thank you and if the adults will sit down but all the kids will stay standing. Hi everybody, where are you? There you are. So today we welcome Leopold and Carmen into our first Unitarian family. Soon they'll be a part of our classes here and we'll be growing and playing and learning with you. I ask you to join us in welcoming them. Will you try to be true friends to Leopold and Carmen? Will you speak to them with kindness, treat them fairly and help them to feel at home here? If so, please say we will. Thanks everybody, please be seated. To our parents who bring your children here and stand with them, Chris and Angie, Jonathan and Abby, as caregivers it is your privilege and obligation to provide an environment both of security and challenge in which these young souls which you bring before us today will grow. Do you commit yourself to promote their physical and emotional spiritual well-being? Will you respect as well as protect your child and bestow your love as a free unmerited gift? Also, do you reaffirm your commitment to one another as partners in life and in parenting? If so, please say we do. We have many here with us today who are here in support of Carmen and Leopold and if you will please stand as your names are read. With Carmen are grandparents Ellen and Tom Laser and grandmother Isabel Pabone and with Leopold, Uncle James Ball, Tia Kate Dahl, Tio Chris Hubbock, Grandma Mary Ball, Grandpa Earl Ball, Grandma Kathy Dahl and Grandpa Steve Dahl. To all of you I now ask, do you take upon yourselves the privilege and responsibility to nurture, defend and support the inherent worth and dignity of this child to whom you bear a special relationship? Will you encourage them to grow in freedom and spirit and always seek the truth? Finally, will you help them to grow in love for the larger human family and to love and respect the larger community of life to which we all belong? If so, please make this sacred promise by responding we will. Thank you. Please be seated. In the act of dedication we use the symbolism of water as a sign of our common heritage. There's no suggestion here of a washing away of inherited sin. These children came into the world with the limitations natural to our species but they arrived innocent. Water here stands for vitality. It is the essence of life, the foundation of being. Its use here reminds us of our common bond with all embracing ever sustaining nature. This is also the water of our community. The waters of our world gathered at our annual water communion service. This water was an offering of the earth brought to us in joy for the sake of memory and community. Its use here reminds us of the ever sustaining and embracing love of community. I name this child Carmen June Pabone. We dedicate you in the name of truth, the fellowship of love and the promise of this society. Are you ready? May you be granted clarity of thought, integrity of speech and a compassionate heart. She's not quite sure. And name this child. You want to come to me? I only got one arm Leo, I could try over here. Yeah, look, all right. Leopold Edgar Ball, we dedicate you in the name of truth, the promise of love and the fellowship of this society. May you be granted clarity of thought, integrity of speech and a compassionate heart. We also have gifts that we wish to give you as a token of their dedication. We give to Leopold and Carmen a rosebud, fragrant symbol of beauty, promise and love. This rose has no thorns symbolizing the better world we would give our children if it were our power. While we know that the world is not altogether as lovely as this rosebud, we hope that Leopold and Carmen will learn to recognize the beauty and goodness which does exist and that they will grow in the wisdom and compassion adding their own beauty to the world. Leopold and Carmen, as flowers unfold in all its beauty, may your life unfold as well. Our second gift is the gift of a dedication, a blanket. Yes, a blanket from the members of the Shawl Ministry program. When you see this blanket, may you be reminded of the warmth and support, the love of this community for your child and your family. Thank you so much. You may return to your seats. So today we have dedicated these children. May we also dedicate ourselves this day. As we contemplate the miracle of new life, may we renew in our hearts a sense of wonder and joy. May we be stirred to a fresh awareness of the sacredness of life in the divine promise of childhood. May we pledge to build a community in which all children will grow surrounded by beauty, embraced by love, and cradled in the arms of peace. May we pass on the light of compassion and courage and may that light burn brightly within us all. I invite us to rise in all the ways that we do and sing our children off to their classes. And bless this time with number 338. The first reading today from John O'Donohue. In out of the way places of the heart where your thoughts never think to wander. This beginning has been quietly forming. Where your thoughts never think to wander. This beginning has been quietly forming. Waiting until you were ready to emerge. For a long time it has watched your desire. Feeling the emptiness growing inside you. Noticing how you willed yourself on. Still unable to leave what you had outgrown. It watched you play with the seduction of safety. And the gray promises that sameness whispered. Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent. Wondered would you always live like this. Then the delight when your courage kindled. And out you stepped onto new ground. Your eyes young again with energy and dream. A path of plenitude opening before you. Though your destination is not yet clear. You can trust the promise of this opening. Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning. That is at one with your life's desire. Awaken your spirit to adventure. Hold nothing back. Learn to find ease in risk. Soon you will be home in a new rhythm. For your soul senses the world that awaits you. This month as we enter into a new year. We enter in a new theme. The theme of possibility. Today and in the coming weeks we will be exploring the question of what does it mean to be a people of possibility. Where does possibility live within our lives and here within our congregation? What do you think of when you hear possibility? Do you think of something new and exciting to say yes to? Maybe the beauty of a new day. The road less traveled that can bring new adventures. A stranger who may become a dear friend. Hands open in welcome. Where is possibility for you? Possibility is central to our faith. To who we are as Unitarian Universalists today and also who we have been historically. When others were preaching the depravity of human nature our ancestors were focusing on humanity's inherent goodness and worth. This theological distinction is what drew me to Unitarian Universalism during my years as a seminarian at the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. One of our first classes was church history and theology. And each day we learned a little bit more about the Presbyterian Church. At this time I was there as a Presbyterian student thinking that this faith of my husband's family would be not only my faith but the denomination and community in which my future career and ministry would be based. During the early days of that course our professor taught us what is lovingly known as Calvin's round. A three-part round based on the theology of John Calvin the founder of Presbyterianism. The round begins with one section singing turpitude moral turpitude then joined in by section two singing depravity depravity all to be rounded out by the glorious section three singing inherent baseness inherent baseness I won't ask you to do that this morning but I'll tell you it is a thing of beauty to behold and a joy to sing very early in the morning. The round pointed out the key message in Calvin's theology humans are he believed at their core wicked depraved vile and corrupt. This was deeply concerning for me to learn someone who was considering devoting their life to spreading this message which at my core I knew I could never authentically do. This message did not fill me with a sense of possibility but rather filled me with dread. It felt constricting, suffocating, spiritually exhausting as if humanity had been tried and found deeply wanting. What I began to search for was an expanded view that led in more light, more possibility for possibility is the oxygen upon which hope thrives. Yes life can be cruel and people can be terribly brutal but at my core I believe that they are good with a worth and a dignity to respect and to call upon and to be put into service for the greater good. Michelangelo is often quoted as having said that inside every block of stone or marble dwells a beautiful statue. One need only remove the excess material to reveal the work of art within. It's a wonderful image for our theology. Our work in this world is to remove the extraneous debris that keeps us from living fully into our potential into everything that is possible. What would that look like do you think? To live and dwell in possibility. What would it look like in your life if you woke in the morning and went through your day believing that all things are possible? While on retreat at a monastery a few years ago I noticed this beautiful painting hanging in a hallway with the words faith makes all things possible in very large letters at the top and I thought yep seen that one before but then I noticed that there was this tiny writing underneath and I got closer and it said faith makes all things possible. It doesn't make them easy. Our faith in human goodness in the potential that lies within each of us helps us to believe that all things are possible that the heaven on earth we seek is possible that our hope doesn't lie only within an afterlife that heaven's possible now within our lives and our homes and our workplaces and our congregations but it doesn't mean it will be easy. Being a people of possibility means we also need to be a people of courage willing to face our fears being open to new ideas willing to make mistakes and willing to face our imperfections not as a sign of deficiency but as a sign that learning is happening. Being comfortable with making mistakes is a difficult one. It's one of those layers of extraneous debris that Michelangelo mentioned. It could be seen as our desire for perfection that if we can't get it right can't solve the problem on the first try can't be completely assured that this new idea is going to work often it stands in our way of seeing whether it's possible or are even being willing to try. So can we become comfortable with being uncomfortable? Because it is in those places those deeply uncomfortable places where we can discover possibility and where we can be transformed. When he retired from the Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall was asked what accomplishment are you most proud of? He answered, I did the best I could with what I had. Could there be any greater acknowledgement? He saw the best in what he did in a way that allowed him to also speak of errors of judgment of things he might have done differently. So this month as we continue to delve deeper into this theme I challenge each of us to stand in this great space of possibility in a posture of openness with an unfettered imagination for what could be willing to take new risks embracing our imperfections and when we make mistakes to say how terrific because then we have a chance to learn something new and begin again. What would it look like to live and dwell in possibility? So this month I'm going to make it a practice to ask myself that question and a few others and I invite you to join me. When I notice tightness or constriction within myself when I'm faced with a new idea I'm going to ask myself what assumption am I making now that I'm not aware of? What am I afraid of in this moment? And when I think I have an answer to those questions I'm going to ask what can I now discover that I haven't yet discovered that could give me other choices? What can you discover that you haven't yet discovered? Though your destination is not yet clear you can trust the promise of this opening unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning that is at one with your life's desire. Awaken your spirit to adventure hold nothing back learn to find ease in risk soon you will be home in a new rhythm for your soul senses the world that awaits you. The second reading is taken from the poetry of Kaywin Hot and her poem God Says Yes to Me I asked God if it was okay to be melodramatic and she said yes I asked her if it was okay to be short and she said it sure is I asked her if I could wear nail polish or not wear nail polish and she said honey she calls me that sometimes she said you can do just exactly whatever you want thanks God I said and is it even okay if I don't paragraph my letters sweet cakes God said who knows where she picked that one up what I'm telling you is yes yes yes one of the moments in my life where I did not know just how powerful the crossroad of possibility was was in graduate school much like Reverend Kelly when I was at a place of deciding with a sense of depth and seriousness what the future would bring and in particular sorting through the opportunity and the complexity of what seemed to be a sort of cruel joke of the universe in which I had just finally gotten my act together to be able to step out of one closet only to find myself in yet another one I mean I had finally found the sense of purpose and courage to be okay with the struggle with my colleagues to come out as gay and to find a way to minister in the midst of a time when that was not okay but I had not yet realized that in the process of discovering who I was spiritually that I had found such a range of spiritual nourishment nourishment from Buddhism nourishment from Jewish mysticism nourishment from earth-based traditions and that so many of my life experiences did not fit into easy categories all of this had helped form my spirit and it had begun to raise questions about how closely I belonged to the very tradition that had called me into ministry in the first place and so there I was having come out of one closet to find myself trapped in another spiritual one and it really came to a head when I found myself sitting one afternoon in front of a table of my peers and one professor to present my theology of ministry now I had taken into account all of what I just told you but when I wrote my paper I tried to write it honestly but with language that was so carefully nuanced to let those people gathered at the table with me make their own interpretations about what those words meant that wonderful word game that often happens in theology and other places the thing is that at that moment the people gathered at the table were people that I had by just the sheer luck of the draw been in enough of a relationship with that I trusted their perspective and they valued me as a human being and so as I presented my paper and I sat back to hear what they had to say they said, among other things that they thought that the paper was very well written and very clear in its theology and then they smiled and very lovingly said and we don't think you stand a chance of hell in any Christian church we know of and the thing is they were so right and what a loving gift it was for them to listen underneath what I had presented to them and hear the deeper truth and the thing is I have been playing a theological word game with them instead of really leaning into my deeper truth instead of grappling with the past and really letting it inform and help transform who I was on a deeper level I had let it become a vague reference and instead of telling them the truth of who I was and perhaps eventually to be afraid to tell the truth to a congregation as well I had not been engaging them in authentic relationship and the graceful moment was that they just weren't going to have it they allowed me to be myself more importantly they demanded that I tell them the truth so often in our lives as we move into possibility we don't necessarily invite in all of the things that we need to really encounter that possibility most fully so often instead of moving into a space with an open mind and an open heart we find ourselves trapped in the past and trapped in the past in a way that doesn't grapple with deeper truths or let it tell us who we are now but keeps us mired in something that no longer should be holding us so painfully sometimes instead of engaging the present we become these small petty gods of no instead of embodying a God of yes and finding something within us that is able to really engage the world around us from a place of authenticity not from some fragile and half hidden part of who we are the thing is very often in our communities the same thing happens as well we find ourselves so afraid of really engaging the past that we avoid it and we are so afraid of offending each other and the present that we don't engage in real conversations and we are so mediocre about what we hope for dream of in the future that we never really risk letting it out there and moving forward into it with all that we are is that how we want to live our lives is that how we want to be together week after week we have this long heritage in our own tradition that has taught us that the real essence of what religion is about is to engage the world exactly as it is as it is now and in that world that we encounter to discover what is the sort of essential components of it what is the grounding what is the core important parts that we need to engage how often do we really let ourselves tackle that difficult question together or even individually in our tradition for over a hundred years we understood that words like God were a way of helping us quickly understand that so much of what is powerful in life is deeply mysterious so much of what really is meaningful in life is larger than any one of us and all of us all of it grounds us in some sort of shared deeply intertwined sense of being and we can never really remove ourselves from that deep inner relatedness we have that powerful heritage to draw from as unitarian universalists and so often we are afraid to invoke it and hold it and let it be a place that we rest in so as we move into this time of exploring possibilities how can we find that place of courage how can we find that grounding of authenticity as individuals and as a community how can we let it call us into who we really are without fear of people rejecting us for our honesty Kathleen Rowlands reminds us that one of our cherished beliefs that we hold dear is that we have inherited from our transcendentist forebears a deep love for diversity or religious pluralism Emerson embraced diversity not as a political platform not as something you put on a bumper sticker but as a fundamental truth about creation he wrote the charm of life is its variety of genius and that these contrasts and flavors by which heaven has modulated the identity of truth and Richardson writing about Emerson's thinking continues the world is as possible because of the great variety of things that the world is and it is better for the more different things contained in all and it is all needed nothing is fair or good alone reach into the gift of the diversity of the people seated around you reach into the diversity that exists within you and understand it as a place of power what is happening in your life right now that is calling you to that scary edge of new possibility and what gifts are already within and around you that will help you really say yes may this month invite us into that wonderful terrifying adventure so may it be amen and blessed be so often in the worship service we are asked to think within the various forms of the service about deeper truths in our lives and the offering every week which may on one level just seem to be an opportunity to ask us to contribute money to the church and it is indeed that is something deeper it is always an invitation to think about how you are in relationship with all that matters in your life and how you are using those gifts well please remember that this morning as we give generously we have the opportunity to assist healthy food for all there is more information about that in the red floors but their program helps sustainability and utilization of food that might otherwise be wasted find its way to those that need it most the spirit of generosity and connection be alive as the offering is given and received we appreciate the many gifts of those who helped our service this morning so greeting you upstairs Gail Bliss and Claire Box thank you very much our ushers are Nancy Daley, Ken Gage and Michael Lossy he is upstairs thank you and on sound we have David Briles and hospitality in the kitchen is today is Blaise Thompson and Biss Nitschke and if you want to tour after the service please gather over by the ramp over here and I want to just point out in your red floors so if you wanted to be an usher or a greeter or hospitality person or be on sound well now is your chance you can just check one of these boxes and you can get training and learn how to do it all of these jobs are really fun and there is one special announcement that was just handed to me so next Saturday January 12th there are some white nationalist groups who are going to be in town doing what they are calling a we the people rally now we know that is a misnomer right I think it is we the white male straight people rally it is what they ought to call it because the organizers are the 3% united patriots and the free men report the free men report is a Madison based group they organize against the rights of immigrants and women so a counter rally is being organized but we you use want to think about how we want to be a part of that so we invite anyone if you have ideas or just would like to be involved to come back into the atrium after you get your coffee or your tea for a brief discussion with Tim Corden he is our as you know social justice coordinator about how or if we want to be involved how we would side with love in response to this rally thank you very much we join together each week a community who gathers with joys and sorrows written on our hearts in this place we love and our loved we give and receive in return we come together to find strength and common purpose turning our minds and hearts toward one another this week we hold Janet Swanson in our hearts as she sits vigil with her mother and their family as her mother is passing from this life we send our strength and our love to Janet and to all her family we also hold those joys and sorrows that are too tender to share that live within the fullness of our hearts may we remember that we are part of a web of life that makes us one with all humanity and one with the universe may we be grateful for the miracle of life that we share in the hope that gives us the power to care remember and love amen and if you will rise now in all the ways we do our closing hymn in the teal hymnal number one thousand and seventeen in stronger every day we are big we can feed our every need we are working to be free to be free to be free hate and greed and jealousy we are worse now we can feed our every need we can feed we can feed start with love that is the seed we can feed peace and freedom is our cry peace and free is our cry peace and free peace and freedom is our cry without these our world would die peace and free as we go forth from this place each of us contributing to building that new way may we find that deep core of possibility within us and around us may we be that possibility to each other may this community together find their way in love we extinguish this light but not the light of wisdom the fire of our commitment the warmth of this community that remains until we gather in this place again may we enjoy another gift of music before we head out into the day