 I think the family is going to take good care of it. It's going to be a lot of fun. Sometimes the people is going to be like, you have to love yourself. You have to love yourself. I don't know. Do you need what you're doing? Well, I'm just going to go. I have to think too much. I'm serious. I'm just going to go. I'm just going to go. I'm just going to go. . . . . . . Oh Just one Let's join in a moment of centering silence and gathering him number 380 is in your order of service Good morning Welcome 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 supports the freedom of conscience of each individual as together we seek to be a force for good in the world My name is Dorrit Bergen 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 Visitors are encouraged to stay for our fellowship hour after the service and look for people carrying teal stoneware mugs These are FUS members knowledgeable about our programs and community life and they look forward to the chance to speak with you this morning You can also stop by our information table outside of the library where you can find more information about our upcoming events and programs In this lively acoustical environment it can become difficult for those in attendance to hear what is happening in our service So we remind you that our Child Haven and Commons areas are excellent places to go when anyone needs to talk or move around The service can still be seen and heard from those areas We do have hearing assistance devices available please see one of our ushers if that would be helpful for you This would be a good time to turn off all electronic devices that might disrupt the service 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 or our national landmark meeting house Please meet near the large glass window on the left side of the auditorium I'd now like to acknowledge those individuals who help our service run smoothly Our sound operator this morning is David Bryles Your greeters were Joe Kramer and Claire Box Your ushers Diane Olson, Chuck Evanson, Brian Channis And hospitality folks are Biss Nitschke and Sandra Plisch Please note the announcements on the Red Force insert in your order of service Which describe upcoming events at the society and provide more information about today's activities And I have one special announcement On the off chance that the signage hasn't caught your attention We want to remind you that today, yes today, is our annual art fair, art in the right place The landmark building has been transformed by the incredible talent of 47 area artists This is a great opportunity to load up on holiday gifts You'll not only be supporting artists, you'll be supporting our children's religious education program as well 15% of all sales are donated to children's RE And for something sweet, be sure to stop at the bake sale table in the commons Also a fundraiser for our children's program We have some spectacular bakers in our community and here's your chance to indulge in the fruits of their labor The bake sale will end at around 1pm, the art fair continues until 4pm today Again, welcome We hope that today's service will stimulate your mind, touch your heart and stir your spirit Roman Catholic priest who passed away last year Autumn prayer O sacred season of autumn, be my teacher, for I wish to learn the virtue of contentment As I gaze upon your full colored beauty, I sense all about you and at home-ness with your amber riches You are the season of retirement of full barns and harvested fields The cycle of growth has ceased and the busy work of giving life is now completed I sense in you no regrets for you have lived a full life I live in a society that is ever restless, always eager for more mountains to climb I am seeking happiness through more and more possessions As a child of my culture, I am seldom truly at peace with what I have So teach me to take stock of what I have been given and received May I know that it's enough, may I know the contentment that allows the totality of my energies to come to full flower And may I know that like you, I am rich beyond measure So autumn, take pleasure in your great bounty Let me also take delight in the abundance of the simple things of life Which are the true sources of our joy With the golden glow of peaceful contentment, may I truly appreciate this autumn day I invite you to rise in body and spirit for the lighting of our chalice As we kindle the flame, please join me in repeating the words of affirmation We light this chalice as a symbol of our thanks for the bounty of life We are grateful for the many gifts we have been given Gifts of love and laughter, where mutual support is most evident Gifts of conscience, which encourage us to contribute to the common good Gifts of hope, which give purpose to our days and meaning to our efforts For these and many other unnamed gifts of life, we give thanks And now in the spirit of that thankfulness, please turn to your neighbor In exchange with him or her a warm greeting Thank you, Dory Please be seated And I would like to invite the children to come forward for the message for all ages I didn't know I had any pigs here in my audience Okay, here we go Get past the animal noises All right, so what am I holding? A box A box And what kind of a box do you think it is? Some of you have had boxes like this before A money box because it has a slot in the top And what do you put in the slot? You put money in the slot A money box, but it's a special kind of money box, isn't it? And you donate money You donate money that you put in the box It's a guest at your table box You ever had one of these before? Well, you're going to have a chance to have one today I'm going to tell you a little more about it in just a minute But first I want to share with you a little story About a woman by the name of Ursula Rakova Now Ursula Rakova lives about halfway around the world In a chain of islands And a toll that's just off of Indonesia Long, long way away Now there's a problem with these islands Because of rising sea levels Due to warming of our planet Her islands, the islands where Ursula lives with her people They're disappearing The ocean is going to cover them up And that means that the people cannot stay on these islands And Ursula is a woman who is trying to help them To relocate to go to some place else And so she has created an organization called Tulele Piesa And in her language that means Sailing into the wind on your own Sailing into the wind on your own And the purpose of her organization Is to try to find a new home For her people that live on these islands And to help find jobs for the adults When they get to their new homes And schools for the kids when they get to their new homes And also she's trying to help her people Keep their culture alive When they move to a place where the culture is different And so Ursula has begun to arrange For her people to move to a new home In the Solomon Islands Which aren't too far away But they're a little higher So people will be safe in the Solomon Islands They won't have to worry about the rising sea levels And guess what? The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee Has been providing her organization As well as six other organizations in the South Pacific With a lot of needed support to do this So in the future there are also going to be Other islands and other cultures That are going to be endangered They may disappear because of global warming And so it's really good to know That our service committee Is helping to raise people's consciousness All over the world about this problem And helping the victims of rising sea levels To find new homes and new livelihoods So today is where the boxes come in We're giving as many of these boxes as we can To our families And what would you do with it? We've already told me, right? Put money in it, that's right But when do we put money? Do we put money in it all at once? No We take the box home And you can get the boxes out in the comments After your church school classes We take the boxes home And we put it on the table Where we eat our meals This is going to be your guest at your table And so every time you have a meal You put a little bit of money in it Ten dollar bills Hundred dollar bills Or maybe just a little bit of your allowance Like maybe fifty cents Or a dollar or something like that But you know, if you do this every day The box is going to fill up, isn't it? And after a few weeks We're going to say Okay, now you all can bring these boxes Back to us here at First Unitarian Society And we're going to count all that money And we're going to send it To the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee And they will use this money To help these people on islands Like the one Ursula lives in That are threatened by rising sea levels And they're also going to be using that money To do other good work as well Because the U.S.C. does a lot of different things So for instance, right now They're helping women and children Who have escaped from violence In their own countries in Central America They're helping these women and children To come here and find new lives Here in the United States Where they'll be safe So pick up a box in the Commons After the church And put money in it in the days to come And when you're doing that Every time you put a little money in Spend a little bit of time thinking inside The box About how you're helping Ursula And people like you Because they will be very, very glad That you did So that's my little message for today And we're going to sing you out Number 127 Thank you for listening Please be seated We continue our service with a Selection from the Gospel of Matthew The 14th chapter And Jesus withdrew From that place In a boat To a lonely place Apart But when the crowds heard That he had gone They followed him on foot From their towns And as he went ashore From the boat He saw this great throng And he had compassion on the people And he healed their sick And when it was evening The disciples came to him and said This is a lonely place And the day is now over So master send the crowds away Let them go into the villages And buy food for themselves But Jesus said They need not go away You give them something to eat And they replied to him But we only have five loaves here And two small fishes And he said Well bring them to me And he ordered the crowds To sit down upon the grass He took the five loaves And the two fish And he looked up to heaven And he blessed And he broke And he gave the loaves To the disciples And the disciples Gave them to the crowds And they all ate And they all were satisfied And those who ate were about Five thousand men Besides the women and children The second reading From Mick Kodner Of Port Royal, Pennsylvania And he remembers During my third year As a fledgling organic farmer I met George And George had been farming organically For about forty years And he also owned A health food store in New York City And he had a seemingly Endless knowledge of agriculture And he taught my friend Al And me one lesson after another And so Al began organizing Educational programs for farmers And he scheduled a field trip To George's farm But a couple of days beforehand George backed out And he said He was not going to give away For free to a bunch of strangers All these farming secrets That had taken him a lifetime To learn And so we had to cancel The field trip Well we hope that maybe next summer We would be able to convince George To participate But that November George had a fatal heart attack In the twenty years since then I have shared my knowledge With other farmers Many other farmers And I have never kept What I learned a secret That's another lesson That George taught me I invite you to join me In the spirit of meditation Momentarily I will share The words of Max Coots Former minister of our church In Canton New York Max was for many years A Unitarian Universalist minister And also a master gardener As we come together this day Let us give thanks For a bounty of people For our children Who are our second planting And though they grow like weeds And the wind soon blows them away May they forgive us Our cultivation And finally where their roots are Let us give thanks Let us give thanks For generous friends Friends with hearts as big as Hubbard's And smiles as bright as their blossoms For feisty friends As tart as apples For continuous friends Who like scallions and cucumbers Keep reminding us that we've had them Let us give thanks for crotchety friends Sour as rhubarb And just as indestructible And for handsome friends Gorgeous as eggplants And elegant as a row of corn And for the others who are as plain As potatoes but just as good for you For funny friends who are as silly As Brussels sprouts and as amusing As Jerusalem artichokes And for serious friends As complex as cauliflower As intricate as onions May we give thanks for friends As unpretentious as cabbages As subtle as summer squash As persistent as parsley As delightful as dill As endless as zucchini And who like parsnips Can be counted to see us through the winter For old friends Notting like sunflowers in the evening time For young friends Coming on fast as radishes For loving friends who wind about us Like tendrils and hold us Despite our own blights And wilts and witherings And finally For those friends now gone Like gardens past that have been harvested But who fed us in their time That we might have life thereafter For all of these Let us give thanks Continue on at just a moment Or two more of silence Blessed be Adam and man 37 years ago I was enrolled In a doctoral level class In which we were exploring the origins And the evolution of religion As a social phenomenon And as part of that particular curriculum We were striving to understand How certain rituals And practices arose And functioned within the context Of religion And so during one session Of the class, our instructor Introduced the term Comensality And he asked whether Someone, anyone in the class Could provide him with the definition of that word Not a single hand was raised Not one of us made a peep We were all clueless And we were abashed Because from the professor's expression It was obvious that this was something That he thought we should have known And so after what seemed like An agonizing period of silence He deigned to enlighten us Comensality It refers To table-sharing The act of joining with others To partake of a meal Simple as that Its connection With religion is rather obvious Comensality describes practices That date back to Religion's earliest organized forms Judaism's Passover Seder The Christian Eucharist Which was originally A remembrance feast Other than a holy sacrament These are prime examples Of congregational table-sharing Comensality So is iftar, the breaking of the daily fast During Ramadan in Islam And even the church potluck Common to many faith communities Including ours This too counts as a commensal ritual When family and friends gather For thanksgiving, each party Bearing a gift to pass They return to this practice With ancient roots Scholars believe that Communal food-sharing Was instituted originally Less for religious reasons Than to avoid internecine struggles And to ensure social harmony In their observations Of contemporary hunter-gatherer cultures Anthropologists have noted That easily procured food Nuts, fruit, roots These are typically consumed By members of Individual households But meat Meat brought in by hunters Brought to the tribe by hunters That's an entirely different matter As a prized food Measures had to be taken To prevent meat from being monopolized Share and share alike Was the cardinal rule In hunter-gatherer cultures Where meat was concerned And as John Lancaster Observed in a recent issue In at least some hunter-gatherer cultures It is considered appropriate Not to thank the hunter for the meat But to insult the meat As an eater To criticize the quality Or the quantity of the meat And this Lancaster writes Was designed to make sure That hunters do not start to think That they're better than everybody else The ritual sharing of meat Was developed by Pre-civilized cultures To curb those poisonous sentiments Of envy and resentment And to maintain a more egalitarian culture Even if the respective parties Don't actually sit down and partake Of it together Food sharing has become, in our world A cultural commonplace Many of us donate to second harvest To feed America To local suppliers like St. Vincent's They're collecting today The Goodman or the River Food Pantries We do this so that others can eat Even if we can't join them And while the funds generated By the UUSC's guest at your table Program don't translate directly Into food aid The suggestion here That the daily donations be made At meal time Attests to the staying power Of this time-honored practice Of commonsality Now, according to Parker Palmer The same principle can be applied Of the multitudes as described In the Gospels So if we discount the possibility That on this occasion Jesus performed a miracle In the supernatural sense If we discount that, we lay that Assumption aside, then we can open Ourselves to a more plausible And humanistic explanation Now, Palmer argues That what we really have here Is an inspirational teaching story Rather than an affirmation Of Jesus' divinity The crowd is hungry Jesus and his companions They have only a modest amount of food Perhaps only enough to feed themselves Nevertheless, Jesus takes What they have, blesses it And after the crowd sits down Instructs that this meager Amount of food be distributed Now what the Gospel account Overlooks Is that people in the Ancient world, and in poorer Societies even today Always packed something to eat When they were embarking on a day-long journey Packed something to eat That they could eat during that particular period of time There were no convenience stores In ancient Palestine, and most people Were too poor to buy food From village vendors So people had some food with them But it was invisible There was more food than just what Jesus And his disciples had to offer But until Jesus himself Modeled sharing behavior People kept it to themselves But inspired By Jesus' generous gesture People pulled out their victuals The ones that they had been carrying All along and shared them With the people around them And so as Parker Palmer writes What Jesus does instead of magic Is to act on the assumption Of abundance Suddenly through a community United by a good example Scarcity turns into abundance The story does not claim That everybody walked away from this dinner With a full belly It simply says they all ate And were satisfied And here it seems to me Is the true miracle That all should end up Satisfied The organizational consultant From the Wharton School of Business Adam Grant calls this The ripple effect In which one positive act Stimulates emulation And multiplies the benefits And in his book Give and Take Adam Grant offers a number of telling examples Of how this plays out Time and time again here in our modern world But before he does this He offers us a typology In which individuals are sorted Into three categories We have the takers And the matchers And the givers Into the first category, the takers These are people who are anxious To maximize their advantage Because they believe that that's what everybody else In this dog eat dog world Is trying to do Life for the taker is all about Winning, outperforming, outsmarting Your rivals Someone like Fred Trump Exemplified that world view And his son Donald Adopted it in spades Now takers will share With others, but only in a calculating way And only if they have predetermined That this will work to their advantage Those in the second category Matchers, they're less Self-aggrandizing They are sticklers for fairness They think and they operate in terms of reciprocity Or quid pro quo And matchers feel most comfortable When everything is even Steven and no one feels A sense of obligation to anybody else For their part Givers take satisfaction In generously sharing of themselves Helping others even In the absence of any tangible Return on their investment And those who fall into this category Insist that giving is More intrinsically satisfying Than taking And they are also committed To making our planet or at least The small part of it that they occupy A better place, they have a sense Of a big picture Now surveys indicate that people Throughout the world prefer Givers over takers Respondents to surveys In 75 countries List, helpfulness, compassion Social concern as traits Worth cultivating And yet Many who subscribe to these Giving values are often reluctant To act them out Why is that? Because they're afraid of being taken advantage of And for that reason Even people who have a predilection Toward giving, toward sharing May only do so in the safety zone Of their own families Or circles of close friends In the larger world of work and commerce They exhibit behaviors much more typical Of takers or matchers When they anticipate Self-interested behavior in others Adam Grant writes It's exploited if they operate like Givers, but by encouraging Us to expect the worst in others It brings out the worst in us And so we become loath To follow our nobler instincts But getting back to the Gospel story now, here's the thing When people do Play out their giving Instincts and take the risk Of selfless sharing Others begin to lean In that direction Behavioral studies that have been Done where participants Were sorted out into small groups And then the people in those small groups Were instructed to compete Among themselves for a predetermined Amount of money Well, in some of those groups The competition could be fierce And each individual was seeking To take home the largest amount of money The biggest pot But if just one consistent giver Was present in a group The norms shifted And the participants began collaborating And so instead Of a zero sum contest With clear winners and losers The wealth in these groups was shared And as the Gospel says All were satisfied There are also certain personal advantages To being a giver People will like you better They feel you're more trustworthy Consistent givers also Generate these networks Of support because they have invested In the success and the well-being of others People will give them a boost When they need it Giver success, Adam Grant writes Creates value, doesn't just Claim value Because they are so intent On winning, takers May take full advantage of Opportunities for self advancement Even if others have to pay the price But takers can only Command the loyalty of others As long as they remain successful And others can ride on their coattails What takers have Are not friends but lackeys And that's what makes them vulnerable Takers may find themselves Desserted if and when Their luck runs out Now There are no pure types Every one of us is a mix Of matcher and giver And taker Still for some Sharing, giving seems to be Their default position When help is needed, they're going to be On the front lines But much more typical is George That organic farmer Who mentored Mick Codner Who provided Mick With this invaluable advice But then George said, unless I'm compensated I will not share my Proprietary knowledge with strangers With other people He was generous with Mick Because he may have regarded Mick As kind of a son or an acolyte Or an apprentice But to Mick's disappointment George was not a giver at heart Tim Berners-Lee The pioneering British Computer scientist who first Envisioned the World Wide Web He was and he is A giver, he also happens to be An active Unitarian Universalist The original idea of the Web Berners-Lee writes Could be a collaborative space Where you could communicate through Sharing information The whole principle behind the Web Was this universal spirit of sharing Now in recent years historians Have also been paying much more attention To the neglected role that sharing plays In the scientific enterprise Those who labor Unheralded Who work behind the scenes They often as we know Provide the data and the ideas That lead to Nobel prizes That are awarded then To the lead investigators So for example Rosalind Franklin She was an x-ray crystallographer And she produced the first photograph Of DNA And that was an indispensable piece Of evidence for Watson and Crick Who described the structure of that molecule And who won the Nobel Prize In 1962 for that discovery Franklin's accomplishment Remained unacknowledged She did not share in that prize Some of you may also have seen The recent film Hidden Figures That tells the story of three African American women who were Recruited into our nation's early Space program. They are calculating Skills contributed to the success Of the first manned missions And yet for decades these three Women languished in obscurity What stories like this Help us to realize Is that the sharing of crucial information And of skills isn't always Accompanied by the sharing Of credit is it John Glenn was Fated in a ticker take parade After he circled the globe John Glenn was later elected To the U.S. Senate from the state of Ohio Largely because of his space exploits But showering Accolades on one person Perpetuates the myth Of individual heroic accomplishment While ignoring the obvious fact That success is seldom achieved Without sharing The apostle Paul Addressed this very issue 2000 years ago In the epistle to the Romans, Paul Expressed concern about Members of those early Christian Communities whose sense of their Own self importance was causing Friction and disruption In those communities. And so he Wrote, I beg every one of you Not to think of yourself more Not to Consider he said the human body In which every organ contributes To the health of the whole Likewise he said by sharing Your special gifts as a teacher Or a preacher or a healer All in the gathered church, this body Of Christ all will prosper. When Abraham Lincoln Was elected president At a time of national crisis He knew that this crisis Was not something that any Individual leader, no matter how talented They were, was going to be able to resolve. And while much has been written About the personal qualities That enabled Lincoln to guide Our nation through the civil war The recognition of his own Limitations was crucial To Lincoln's success. As Doris Curran's Goodwin Observes in her book team of rivals Lincoln's supporters were dumbfounded After he had been elected That he was going to invite some of his Interest rivals to occupy Top-level positions in his cabinet What the heck do you think you're doing? And he replied to them We need the strongest men In the party in my cabinet And I have no right to deprive Our country of their services. So with his ability to share As well as to exercise power Lincoln ultimately earned the admiration Of his previous detractors. In this respect and in so many others The contrast between our first Republican president and the current One could not be more stark. When we share We give to others food That we could consume ourselves We give away knowledge and authority That others could use to their Advantage rather than ours. We give credit for accomplishments That might otherwise burnish Our own resumes. So why would we share these things? Well, because when we do share We feel better about ourselves Better about the values that we hold And because when unselfish Open-handed sharing occurs Then it generates respect and trust And because of the ripple effect People are often moved Others are often moved to mimic That kind of behavior Thereby creating a kinder And more collaborative world So what inhibits us From sharing more often And from sharing more deeply? It is certainly a value that we all Try to inculcate in our children But what kind of models are we? Ironically, our wealth Our own well-being May be an obstacle here. In her book Composing a Life Mary Catherine Bateson relates the story Of five of her closest friends Each one of them unique in their own way One of them is an African American woman And this particular woman grew up in the deep south And she spoke about The Sunday fried chicken feasts That were so common In black communities after church let out These were get-happy occasions Genetical remembers They featured the bountiful sharing Of food But she observes That kind of sharing becomes much less Common among African Americans Once they achieve middle-class status Another friend, Alice Diatremont She grew up in France And in the aftermath of World War II Consumer goods as well as food Was pretty scarce in post-war France But Alice remembers that people shared Whatever food they had Was well-prepared in the French manner And the conversations around the table Were stimulating In this culture of sharing All were satisfied As the Gospel says Diatremont and her family Later moved from France to Baltimore Her father had found a job in the States But then he lost that job Money again was tight But their neighbors ignored The family's plight Here she said it was so much colder People so much less willing To share when a neighbor Was in distress Well, for certain purposes Of course we all do share Some of us carpool with our neighbors We borrow books from the public library We share our time and our knowledge As volunteers We loan our personal equipment Like snow blowers and edge trimmers But what if we were to raise That sharing ethos to another level What would that look like? Well, in terms of our public policies It would look a whole lot different Than the budgets that are now being pushed At both the state and the federal level Legislation designed Legislation designed To heighten the inequality That is already plaguing And dividing us as a people This is not sharing For all the evidence That sharing is good for us We do remain for the most part A nation of takers afraid of being taken advantage of Reluctant to share With those who we feel are Undeserving But as Thanksgiving approaches May we be moved instead By the words of Charlotte Bronte Who wrote That happiness quite unshared Can scarcely be called happiness Because it has no taste Blessed be And amen In the spirit of that sharing The river food pantry will be the recipient Of your gift this morning I invite you to rise in body and spirit For our closing hymn number 407 Please be seated for the benediction And the postlude From the former universalist Seminary professor Max Kapp Often I have felt That I must praise my world For what my eyes have seen These many years What my heart has loved And often I have tried to start My lines and Dear earth I say And then I pause And I look around once more And soon I am bemused And far away in wonder So I never get beyond Dear earth Blessed be