 They take our demand and carry on with it. I know you say that. I know, too. So, um... Yeah. Thank you. Do you remember what's about it? Do you want it? Where would you like to sit? I don't know. Do you like to sit? I don't know. I don't know. Do you want to practice? Yes, please. Well, she's a very good student. She's a very good student. She's a very good student. Yeah, that's part of the student. I see you have a great room. I'm in the middle of the building now. I don't have that room. You're not in the middle of the building. Yeah, I'm in the middle of the building now. You know that's good. It's very nice, all the time. So, you don't want to sit there? Well, I've seen you sit there. You don't want to sit there. I don't know. Well, could if you wanted to play. So that handles how this isn't a line of choices. Yeah, they're up here. So I'm going to go ahead and put it in the first half. And of course, I'm going to suggest that I at least draw what I'm supposed to be, or what I'm supposed to be. I know. I'm still rancid, and she knows what I'm going to do. And then I'm going to pass here. I can put three and eight, and there's not going to be any. Five. Five. Five. Five. Five. Five. Five. Five. Five. Five. Five. Five. Five. Five. Five. Five. Five. Five. Yeah. Wow. That's good. Yes. Yeah, that's good. That's good, it's cool. Yeah, that's good. All right. All right. Thank you for the beautiful music, the sound of the chimes. Good morning, everyone, on this holiday weekend. A beautiful day. No rain, sunshine, cooler. A day to be grateful for. FUS is First Unitarian Society. It's a community where we try to be curious and explore spiritual, ethical, and social issues. And we hope that we're an accepting and nurturing environment. Unitarian Universalists as a way of how we operate supports the freedom of conscience. So for each individual, so we can be a force for good in the world. My name is Claire, and I'm just delighted to be here and see all your friendly, wonderful faces. And on behalf of the congregation, special welcome to those who are from out of town. I know there were some people here from out of town. Can you raise your hand if you are from out of town? So we can say hi to you afterwards. A few people, welcome. So welcome to all. Wherever you are on your journey, we celebrate your presence among us. As we gather in this place and this time, let us all remember we are all visitors in this life. We come together to find meaning and hope with all the other visitors in life. Let us join our hearts and our minds together as we celebrate life. And on kind of a boring note, would you please silence cell phones. So let's join together in singing hymn number 95. There is more love somewhere. Please stand if that's comfortable for you. Standing, there's an insert in your order of service. So we're going to try an experiment. This is a little longer cello sliding than usual and it's a poem. We can sing together. So I really think we can read a poem together. I'll read the bolded and you read the non-bolded. I have no address. I am a sparrow with a white heart, singing for peace, love and humanity. In every place, I have an address. My address is lines ornamented by dreams, beating by heart for people who wish for good other people. I sing, smile and cry. My tears wash away pain in every place. And when waves go against us and cast us away, then the echo of my sounds at midnight will be a dock at the shore of twang-quility in every place. And I am the sparrow on the branch. Sleep, dream and fly happily. In every place, I have no address. By Hamas al-Din from Egypt. So take a minute and say hello to somebody around you. Try to find somebody you don't know. Always hard to stop talking. Please be seated. So now it's time for the children's message. If there are any kids that want to come forward, it's really a message for all ages. But come on forward. I got a message for us. Are there any kids here that are brave enough to come up and see me? Oh, there's Anne. She's brave enough to come and see me. Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! I know you. Okay, I bet you don't. We're going to talk about love. I'm really happy to see you. What do you think love is? Who do you love? Is there somebody in your life you love? Your brother? Yeah. What? Your brother. Anybody else you love? You love John. Who's John? He's your friend. So we love our brothers and sisters. We love our friends. How about our mom and dad? Does anybody love their parents? Does anybody love flowers? Yeah! All kinds of things in the world. You love your mom and dad? Hey, put your hand up, mom. Welcome, welcome. So, this is about love, and sometimes that's a word that is hard to use. So we'll start this story. I love this story, but his name is Todd Parr. The title of the book is Love the World. Love the world. So much to love in the world. Love your face. Can you love your face? I bet you can love your face. Like that monkey is loving his face. Love your space. Where you live. Can you see up there? Well, come over here, sweetie. Come over here. Move over. Move over next to this little guy. Yeah. Can you come over here? All right. Excuse me, a little interruption so we can all see the picture. Love your space. The space around us. When we're out in the woods, the space around us. Love your nose. Do you love your nose? No. No? I love your nose. Don't you love your nose? Well, that's too bad. That's nice to love your nose. I think that bird up there loves that nose. Look at all those colors. How about loving your toes? I love my toes. Oh, yeah. How about loving to walk? Love your walk. No. You don't like to go for walks? Even if it's in the woods with pretty flowers? Yeah. How about do you love how you talk? No. I love how I talk. You don't like your voice? You love giving people a hand and helping people out? Yeah. Do you like that? Yeah. You're my help. Your mother, your father. That makes you feel good. How about do you love taking a stand? No. Standing up and saying, I believe this. I believe this. Do you love school? No. No. Okay, here's one. Do you love yourself? Yeah. Don't love yourself. No? How about loving the world? Yeah. Oh, love the world. No. So how about loving the bees? No. You don't love the bees? And honey? What are bees? Little insects. They make honey. Okay, here's another question for you. Hey, kids. Do you love the trees? Do you love the trees? I have a recorded no going on here. How about do you love your ears? How about do you love your tears? No. How about this one? Do you love your hair? You hate your hair? I love your curls. What does she have? Whoa. Like hair. How about... Do you love your flair? How about do you love being kind? Yeah. That I didn't get a single no for. You're saying goodbye to the dog. You've taken him from the shelter. That's a kind thing to do. Yeah, well, maybe you'll go get him after church. Okay. Here's another one. Do you love using your mind and thinking? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, do you like putting things together? Do you like reading a book? Or do you like... Yeah. How about do you like love making art? I don't know. Do you like to draw pictures? Do you like sharing your heart? What? Do you like sharing your heart? Here, I have some hearts for you to put on. It's a sticker. Sharing your heart means to help people we love them. We like them. Put it on. You might need some help putting them on. Can you help them put it on? This little one needs some help. Can you help her? More coming later. Don't put it on his head. Put it on your... Take it away from him and put it on your chest. Put it on your chest, sweetie. Well, that's a good idea. Put it over your mouth. You have to love yourself. And love the world. And love your giggle. And love your wiggle. Love your grin. Love your smile. Love your smile. Yeah. Love your skin. Love your skin. Do you love your skin? Yeah. Do you love the earth, the land? Do you love that? I think somebody needs to go over and put a heart on that young man because he's... Will you do that? Will you put a heart on that young man next to you? Yeah. Okay. I give up. Do you love the sea? Would you like whales and dolphins and fish? Do you love the earth? Do you love you and me? I bet you do. Love yourself. Love the world. I got one last message for you before you go to summer fun. Okay? You will meet many people and go to many places. You can always find something to love. Can you hear me? You can always find something to love. You can always find... Including yourself. About yourself. The world. Everyone in it. The end. The end. Thank goodness for you guys. You're wonderful. Now, I want you to tell me something before you go. Are you going to tell somebody you love them today? Well, think about it. Think about it if you want to tell somebody that you love them. Now you can go to summer fun. Thank goodness. Bye. Thank you. Thank you. Take Julian and Matteo with me. They both grew up essentially in youth authority facilities. Kids aren't meant to grow up there. From different gangs and each at 19 years old, they've missed a lot of life by being incarcerated for the last four or five years. We land and there's snow everywhere. I have just one goal on this trip, Julian says, and that is to throw snowballs at his ass. This goal, trust me, was amply met during our three days in Montana. They got their hands on plastic sleds and in one afternoon lived an entire childhood previously denied them. Before our talk at the university, we're interviewed by the local paper and pictures are taken. Julian and Matteo speak movingly after my speech and receive a standing ovation. The crowd has so much honor and reverence for what these two abandoned kids have had to carry all of their young lives. There's a mass that follows. Matteo comes up. He has my head in a vice grip and he's trembling and squeezing it with all his might. He leans right into my ear as he does this and can barely speak through his crying. All I know he whispers enunciating with special care is that I love you so much. Now I'm crying. The following day we begin our return home to Los Angeles. That morning on the front page of the Helena newspaper, above the fold in color, a photo of the three of us four columns wide standing in the cold, wearing our homeboy beanies and jackets. The headline read gang members visit Helena with with a message of hope. The homies can't believe it and they squirrel away many copies of the paper. People in the hotel, at the restaurant in the airport greet Matteo and Julian as celebrities. People are stopping them, shaking their hands, congratulating them. The flight attendants make a big deal about the celebrities on board as we settle into our seats at the very back of the tiny airplane. Matteo and Julian are seated together across the aisle. Mid-track I look over and see Julian in the window seat knocked out to sleep with his head leaning on Matteo's shoulder. Matteo is crying. He has the Montana newspaper resting on his lap. I just read this article again he says. He can't speak for a second and silently puts his hand over his heart. I don't know, it really gets to me. It makes me feel like I'm somebody. He cries all the more. I lean across and whisper well that's because you are somebody. Julian and Matteo had never been outside Los Angeles before. Now a new place of friendship has been forged and those outside have been let in. There's a brand new palpable sense of solidarity among equals, a beloved community. This is always the root of true compassion. What gets to Matteo in the end is the truth of how closely bonded we are together dissolving the myth that we are separate at all. Our second reading is by Naomi Shihab Nye and it's called kindness. We know what kindness is. You must lose things. You must feel the future dissolve in a moment like salt in a weakened broth. What you counted and carefully saved all this must go so you know how desolate the landscape can be between the regions of kindness. How you ride and ride thinking the bus will never stop. The passengers eating maize and chicken will stare out the window forever. Before you know the tender gravity of kindness you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho lies dead beside the side of the road. You must see how this could be you. How he too was someone who journeyed through the night with plans and the simple breath that kept him alive. Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing. You must wake up with sorrow you must speak it till your voice catches the thread of all sorrows and you see the size of the cloth. Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore. Only kindness that ties your shoes and send you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread. Only kindness that raises its head from the crowd of the world to say it is you I have been looking for and then goes with you wherever you go in the shadow or a friend. Thank you choir that music touches my heart. So you heard a reading from a book called tattoos on the heart by Gregory Boyle and that is where the title for my reflection comes from today love no matter what but actually this isn't really a reflection of my faith statement kind of like our teens in the first Unitarian society do every year so take it in that light so it's really what do I believe at this point in my life when I'll be 72 on Wednesday so I've witnessed and felt the power of love so many times in my lifetime one particular time that I was thinking of as I was writing this was I was sitting with a man who was dying and with his wife and he kept repeating to her he had a little bit of dementia so he kept repeating the same words to her over and over again you're a good wife I love you you're a good wife I love you you're a good wife I love you she whispered into my ear joyfully I have waited my whole life to hear those words universal unconditional love is a deep heart felt connection with all that is animate and inanimate however the word love is so often used stingily and within very narrow confines are often we just say oh I just love that outfit or it has love with the sexual overtones love is a huge word as in the children's message loving all those children with all their nose this morning love this love does not mean that all behaviors condoned accepted ignored or with not without consequences and also there are expectations and limits within relationship for instance if a gang member comes to work drunk or on drugs he is out of the work program home boy industries which you heard about however they are not out of chances if they're able to back to the place sober sober that's all just sober as Boyle says out of here but not out of my heart in this time of challenges related to family expectations and a lot of stress and in this congregation our current transition and all the transitions in our life the sober suffering in the world stepping into universal love can sustain us and I believe opens our hearts with courage to face the unknown with kindness knowing that this is an ongoing practice and not searching for perfection perhaps in our lifetime we may not always feel unconditional love but it remains our intention or my intention to love so that we can live and practice this in each moment however imperfectly and love can come from so many different unexpected places two year old Shelly seeing kind of a look like this on my face crawled into my lap looked up at me with her big blue eyes and said it doesn't Maddie Claire it doesn't Maddie and then curled up with me love from a two year old or Karen 11 year old dying of leukemia I'm a student nurse at this time and I'm out of town but had left my number at the hospital so the night nurse called me a student nurse in the middle of the night two o'clock in the morning I drove into the hospital because Karen asked for me so what was that on the nurse's part love she was able to break all the rules that day call a nurse student that wasn't supposed to be there alone at the hospital in the middle of the night and ask her to come in and then she broke the rules again and I gave the morphine shots until she died at three o'clock that day what can that be but love on that nurse's part all religions speak of love although the meaning varies as they do with absolute peace so many of you some of you maybe remember years ago after the invasion of Iraq we had an interfaith peace service but what was true out of that is the absolute and inherent commitment to peace came from all the traditions that were represented there I'm not a religious scholar by any means but I did go through some literature and explore Judaism and Islam and others and always at the base of it I found love one example from the Buddha conquer the hateful man with love conquer the bad man with goodness conquer the miser with generosity conquer the lie with truth from the Dhamma and from first Corinthians love is patient love is kind it does not envy it does not boast it does not proud it does not dishonor others it is not self seeking it keeps no record of rights or wrongs love does not delight in evil but rejoices with truth it always protects always trusts always hopes always perseveres love never fails Martin Luther King said I have decided to stick with love hates too great a burden to bear darkness can only drive out darkness light can only do this hate cannot drive out hate only love can do this well what about us you use what does this shirt mean love what does it mean to us we have seven guiding principles that are wise words if you pick up your hymno for just a second and go in about five pages after the preface you'll find them the page says we the member congregations and our beliefs are there now we don't have time to go through all these beliefs today but this is what we say we believe do we believe these do we believe these and if we do we have to soften our hearts to truly embrace them in our lives there are only words on a page here and they need to come into here so that we can live them in life so a reading from Dr. Robert McGeech called lessons from the geese driving along a commercial corridor near my house I noticed that one of the car dealerships had changed the message on the sign instead of touting a holiday sale or good financing rates the block letters read honk if you love I was thoroughly delighted as I drew closer to the sign I noticed that under the word love was an American flag and I was a little sad about that apparently boisterous love was only reserved for the US suddenly the acknowledgement of our wide and profound connectedness had been reduced to affection for one narrow sliver of the human population I felt diminished I'm better off taking my cue from Canadian geese than used car salesmen geese fly much further as a group than they ever could alone when a goose has been injured two or three others stay on the ground with it until it recuperates as they migrate they honk to remind their fellow birds that they're nearby ready to help encouraging each other along the way if we had as much sense as geese he says then our hearts must be moved more than by parochial interests if we hope to foster a more compassionate world we must practice caring for one another with joy and over long distances if justice is to be realized then our voices must speak loudly even boisterously of love and then there's this precious planet to love as we talked about with the kids there are many things Dan Brooks says that we can do and we all know in the environment like not driving so much and stuff like that but he says the most important personal thing for the environment is for us to fall in love to fall in love with the environment there's a consensus as we all know among the majority of the scientists that we are facing a global crisis and probably the most important crisis that we've had on earth and we can carry our reusable bags yet all the things that we do pale in compassion to what he calls the cool effects of love a prescient elder chief seattle who died in 1866 talked about some of the environmental issues man does not weave this web of life he is merely a strand of it whatever he does to the web he does to himself what is a man without the beast for if all the beasts were gone man would die of a great loneliness of the spirit if we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkling of the water how can you buy them all things share the same breath the beast the trees man the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports humans merely share the earth we can only protect the land not only that's not only not own it excuse me a kind of end of a traditional Navajo prayer that honors the earth is for me may it be beautiful behind me may it be beautiful below me may it be beautiful above me may it be beautiful all around me I'm restored in beauty I'm restored in beauty I'm restored in beauty I'm restored in beauty but you know for me love just doesn't sit there like a stone it has to be made again and again like bread remade all the time made new it's healthy and feels good to be a compassionate warm hearted person and this feeling of compassion kindness sometimes opens our inner door so that you can communicate more easily with other people and that feeling of warmth creates a feeling of openness that you'll find all human beings are just like you and you'll be able to relate to them more easily and the heart softens to this idea of universal love the path John Moransky says to embody unconditional love and wisdom is not some overwhelmingly difficult struggle to make ourselves into something alien to our nature quite the opposite unconditional love and wisdom dawn as we come home to what we mostly deeply are and maybe as we were like Shelly when she was 2 years old our deepest wish is already impartial love our deepest knowing intuitive wisdom beyond self clinging we just need to learn to relax our grip on ourselves and allow the capacities within and shine forth an old Cherokee is teaching his son about life a fight is going on inside of me he says to the boy it's a terrible fight and it's between two wolves one is evil, he is angry he has envy, sorrow regret, greed, arrogance, self pity guilt, resentment, inferiority lies, false pride superiority and a big ego he continues he's good he's a joy, peace, love, hope, serenity humility, kindness, benevolence empathy, generosity truth, compassion faith and love so the same fight is going inside of you inside of every person the grandson kind of thought about that for a minute and then asked his grandfather well who's gonna win and the wise old Cherokee grandfather just replied it depends on the one you feed what keeps us from doing this from showing this universal love Sharon Salzburg says if you want to live on your own terms breaking free from old habits and stories that no longer have any meaning be different, practice love of course this applies to yourself as well as to others I believe there is she says only one kind of love, real love trying to come alive inside of us in spite of our limiting assumptions the distortion of our culture the habits of fear self condemnation and isolation that we tend to acquire just by living life the ability to have compassion for oneself becomes the ability to have compassion for others we recognize love accept it only if we pay attention and notice it but you know I think the one thing that kind of shuts us down to love is fear and fear has usually two extremes Judith left says in one extreme we freeze and the other extreme we're petrified so we panic so it's pretty tough to feel love in a frozen or panicked state so when that happens we shut down and close our heart but fear makes our life narrow and dark and blocks intimacy and more than anything disconnects us from kindness and love that is our inherent right so how do we deal with fear and what are our fears fear of losing a safety and control fear of aloneness and disconnection fear of unworthiness fear that your love will not be acknowledged by others fear of rejection I'm sure there are a lot of others for you and how might these fears inhibit opening and expressing the universal love for me it's like showing my vulnerability and not doing something perfectly in this service or forgetting things so what helps me with my fear well at times when I can see the fear perhaps I can recognize that it's unrealistic humor for me deflates fear smiling with myself what gets in your way I love a quote by Ajan Tsuchito who's a teacher inside meditation tradition who says oftentimes our head is running ahead and our body is dragging to keep up and our heart is saying I don't know I don't know so our goal is come together as one head body and heart that's our journey to bring it all together a long time ago Virgil said love conquers all and love opens us up to joy joy in being with you today in the smiles and jokes with the children the beauty of the morning the joy in being with those we love and in this community sometimes your joy is a source of your smile but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy that's what Thich Nhat Hanh says so I'll end quickly now and back to Father Boyle for a second outside a cemetery chapel while we silently await a coffin of murdered gang members to be placed in a hearse I see a young girl of three or four across from me who's in Kiheita in Kiheita in an attempt to reduce her fidgeting her mom reaches into a large bag takes out a beautiful ripe pear and hands it to her daughter the daughter twirls the pear around in all directions she looks at it and then she asks her dad quietly how do you open it it's a good question how do we open our hearts and mind to a new way of thinking about love and joy how can our eyes be open one need not have been there to imagine how the father answered his daughter's question take a big old bite so Richard Rohr says yes look before you leap but leap take a big old bite even if you don't exactly know how to open it looking into love and joy during these hard times in our lives and in our world as a challenge that we meet every day moment by moment so I will close just with a short prayer back to the geese that which causes our soul to take flight encourage us in these difficult days remind us that those beyond our circles, our borders, our walls are embraced by the same immeasurable love by which we are held help us demonstrate kindness in all that we do and grant that we may indeed have as much sense as geese so it's now time for the morning's offering and when the offering baskets come around there are hearts in there I encourage you to take one and put it on and thanks to everyone in the community for all they give to keeping this operation going we want to express a special thanks to our volunteers this morning who helped make service possible our greeter this morning was Dorit Bergen our Eliza Monroe Elizabeth Barrett and Pam McMullen hospitality being provided by Janie Hills and Blaise Thompson our lay minister this morning was Ann Smiley at our information and welcome table Karen Rose Gredler flowers provided by Claire Box and Pulpit Palms are cared for by Hathaway Hessler and we have a special message from Tim Corden it's rare that I get to be before you all and so many of you I don't know but I want to get to know you all my name is Tim Corden I'm the social justice coordinator for First Unitarian Society I believe I have the best job in the world and it's because this congregation is so committed to social justice that I get to do what I do and get paid for it so thank you my heart is full of gratitude for this service I'm so glad to have found a place where love is not a scary word but a word that really embodies who we are and what we're about and thank you Claire for inviting me to say a few words in my job I get to work with social justice ministry teams people who are reminding us that white supremacy culture is alive and well in America that it's alive and well in all of us that poverty is amongst us that homelessness is amongst us and Claire has made it possible for an anonymous contribution to make it possible for us to give half of what we're giving today to the healing house a project of Madison Urban Ministries one of our partners and this is a respite center that's opening on Monday so that homeless families that are experiencing surgery hospitalization birth can have some time off the streets where they can be cared for and so thank you Claire for bringing that opportunity that's just one of the many hospitality radical hospitality things that ministry teams here at FUS do and I get the pleasure of working with all of them in some capacity yes and yes there's a table outside if you'd like to learn more about the hospitality house the other thing that we're very proud of or pleased to be a part of is us and I passed some of these around while the offering was being taken if you didn't get one I'll be out in the hallway with more it's a two sided little leaflet and I think both sides are equally important just remember there's two Fridays coming up and each of them you can meet at FUS at about 6.45 if you want one we're going to car pool over to Brittingham Park where we're going to join lights for liberty or that proclaims many things including no human is illegal and then the following Friday we're going to kick up our heels we're going to raise our spirits with rock blues soul we're going to have a concert and dance and raise money for immigration reform it's going to be a benefit for Voce Stila Frontera for project reunify which is helping children and families get reunified on the border and also for the El Salvador mental health project that's helping victims of war in El Salvador it's a three way benefit whatever you can give that night we'll go to those three there's going to be a silent auction as well so please come this Friday come here in car pool with us to Brittingham Park and then next the following Friday on the 19th come here and dance and enjoy some great music and oh and I should say Clara Norell a local singer songwriter will be opening the night with music from Latin America as well as some of her own originals about peace and justice there's so much more I want to say but I just want to close with a shared moment of gratitude with all of you I found my home with you all and I love it thank you thank you Tim and thanks for all the work you do for us on our behalf and with us so while I join our voices I think in one last 34 please be seated for the benediction and the postlude Shoulders by Naomi Shihab Nye a man crosses a street in rain stepping gently looking two times north and south because his son is asleep on his shoulder no one must splash him the car drives too near his shadow the man carries the world's most sensitive cargo but he's not marked nowhere does his jacket say fragile handle with care his ear fills up with breathing he hears the hum of a boy's dream deep inside him we're not going to be able to live in this world if we're not willing to do what he's doing with one another the road will only be wide the rain will not stop falling one last thing if you enjoyed Claire's beautiful shirt we're having a closeout sale down at the social justice table so when you show up to side with love you can wear your own yellow shirt if you don't have one yet John is doing a tour if you're interested in getting a tour of this beautiful sustainable building or our historic Frank Lloyd Wright meeting house John Powell will be offering a tour meet at this corner of the sanctuary after the service