 Hi Larry, great. How are you doing? Thank you. She was a sweet woman caught a lot of us by surprise too, so Yeah Yes Welcome to the first Unitarian society of Madison. My name is Kelly Crocker. I'm one of the ministers here and today I'm joined by my colleague the Reverend Kelly asked Bruce Jackson along with the worship team of Linda Warren Heather Thorpe Drew Collins Daniel Carnes and Steven Gregorius The vision of first Unitarian society is growing souls Connecting with one another and embodying our Unitarian Universalist values in our lives in our community and in our world We look forward to greeting you after today's service at our coffee hour and many thanks to Jeannie Hills Who is in the kitchen preparing our coffee and tea this morning? If you're visiting with us today welcome We're so very glad that you are here if you would like more information about first Unitarian society our Activities and programs, please stop by the welcome table in the commons after service Also at that welcome table after service will be Ross Woodward it is time to sign up for our annual peace polls polls that will be happening on Mother's Day weekend and Ross will be at the welcome table to greet you and sign you up this morning and A very very special reminder. I saw some Easter baskets coming in our Easter egg hunt is back this year It is outside on the playground You just head outside these doors to the left up to courtyard rooms ABC if you did not bring a basket No worries there will be baskets there for you and we invite all kids through the fifth grade to join us out there on the playground and We want to thank Julie Swanson and Maya Piric for all of the chalk Activities that are outside you may have seen them on your way in on the sidewalk surrounding the parking lot So make sure you have some time to check those out, too and Now I invite you to join me in a moment of silence to center ourselves Bring ourselves fully Into this time and this place as we join together once again in community Out of the earth rises light Rises life rises spring May we join with the miracle that is springtime and enter into life with lightness and joy Out of the spirit rises faith rises hope rises love May we join with the miracle that is Easter time and enter into life with hope and love Let us resurrect with spring Let us resurrect with the spirit and enter into renewed life as we gather into our time of worship together this Easter morning and If you will rise in all the ways we do and join together in our words of affirmation as we light our chalice our soul speaks spring our Souls speak green shoots pushing through last year's leaves Our souls speak flower buds stretching to sun our souls speak mud puddle and nest building damp earth and worm castings Tiny green leaves and frog courses We speak spring because spring sings in us We gather to nurture our faith in our own growing Our own courage to push through our own blossoming in beauty Our own small part in the spring of this world Now let us rise and sing together Him number 61 Blow the earth wakes again. This isn't try to keep going on. We'll see what happens, but why don't we practice? So when you hear Deadpool grass you're putting into it. Let's just make them by morning pond Peepers Beep-beep-peep-peep-peep-peep-peep-peep-peep-peep-peep-peep-peep-peep-peep-peep-peep-peeppeeppeep. Nighthawk? Daffodils You doesn't know what he's getting into I do not no So here is how the story begins it wasn't a particularly hard winter that year I like this year, but it was long and dreary and colorless No wonder, then, that when the first winds of March blew warm breath across the land, and the land began to green, the wild creatures on four feet and on the wing took notice. The first creature, small brown mouse, sat back on her haunches and smelled the warm air. She knew what this meant. The green time was coming and the first small shoots of grass, which tasted so very good, would begin to show themselves, ah, sighed the small brown mouse, tender grass, to nibble on and to line my nest for my babies. The small brown mouse was not the only creature glad to smell spring in the air. The fuzzy-tailed squirrel, scampered to and fro up and down the trees. He paused a moment to watch a sparrow and her mate work on their nest. Mrs. Sparrow wanted to line the nest with soft lint and grass in a particular way. Mr. Sparrow was getting tired of her bossing and soon he flew off and hid behind a daffodil, which was nodding in the breeze. Fuzzy-tailed squirrel shook his tail and scampered off. He remembered a spot where he had hidden a particularly juicy horse chest nut. He hoped that the little brown mouse had not found it. High overhead, Nighthawk surveyed the land. His favorite tree was still there and his neighbor, fuzzy-tailed squirrel, was there too. He passed his winters far to the south, but he was always glad to return to his home. The trees were all fuzzy and green with baby leaves, and the flowering trees were bright with colored petals, and over there were the daffodils waving and nodding to him. The warm spring sun shone down upon the land, upon the grass that glowed with green vigor, upon the little brown mouse as she put the finishing touches on her nest and upon the daffodils too. The sun gave warmth to the wings of the Nighthawk as he soared upon the wind and beamed upon the sparrow family. As they worked a bit more cooperatively this time on their nest, the sun gleamed on the fuzzy-tailed squirrel as he scampered about and it even glittered upon the pond. Down in the deep quiet of the pond, where the water never quite froze, even in deep midwinter, the warmth of the sun began to heat the water until, suddenly, the frogs popped out of their winter mud nests. Tadpoles began to swim in the sun-warmed pond, and they dreamed of jumping high into the air to see the grass at the edge of their world. The peepers joined the chorus, and the pond added music to the colors of spring. And there in this musical, colorful world where the grass was green and the daffodils nodded in the breeze, where the tadpoles dreamed and swam in the warm waters of the pond, and where fuzzy-tailed squirrels scampered in the trees as the Nighthawk settled into his tree while the sun shone on down. The little brown mouse had her babies, the sparrows laid four eggs, and what had been the promise of spring became the fulfillment of it. And the best part of that, Kelly, is every time you see grass now, I want you to go, ooh. All right, friends, I have another story to tell you this morning. This story comes from the Papago people whose native homeland is in the American Southwest. So in this story, one day, the Creator was out for a walk. It was a nice, bright day, like today. The sun was shining, color was returning to the world after the winter, the children were playing. The Creator was just enjoying what a beautiful scene it was on Earth, all the different colors, all the happy noises and sounds. But as he walked across the world, he began to become unhappy about something. He thought to himself about how one day the flowers would wilt and die. One day the children would grow older, and maybe they would stop playing so easily anymore. And he thought there needs to be more beauty than this in the world. And so he got out his sack, and he went around to find all the different colors that he could. And he went up to someone and said, could I borrow the pink from your sweater? Would that be all right with you? Okay, and he took some pink, and he put it in his sack, and he went up to someone else and said, could I have a bit of the blue from what you're wearing? Thank you so much. And he put it into his sack. Could I have some of your red? Would that be okay? Thank you very much. And he put that into his sack. In this way, he gathered colors up from all over the world. Every single color that there is, green and blue and black and white, all the different colors into his sack. And then, while the children were watching what he was doing, he leaned over the sack and he whispered into it all of the different songs that birds can sing. Every single last one of them, he whispered into the sack. And he shook the sack, and he opened the sack. And out came butterflies, just a great cloud of butterflies drifting here and there in every place that they could go, all those different colors, those different patterns moving forward and back. And they were singing all the different songs that birds can sing. And it was a beautiful, wondrous thing to behold. And while he was watching the butterflies, and while the children were watching the butterflies, a songbird came and perched on his shoulder and said, Creator, these butterflies you have made are very nice, but you asked permission from all of the other colors that you put into them. You did not ask us permission for our songs. When you made us, you promised that each bird would have its own unique song in all the world. And then you just went and gave all of our songs to the butterflies, realized that the songbird had a point. So he decided that the butterflies would just be quiet from now on, so that the birds could keep their precious songs. So the butterflies flitted about, floating through the air, some coming to rest on the children's hands silently with no songs this time. And the children said, even so, they are very beautiful. I invite you now into this time of giving and receiving where we give freely and generously to this offering which sustains our community here and also supports the work of our outreach offering recipient. This week's offering will be shared with the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, who was founded in 1991 as a coalition of activist groups and citizens of conscience within Wisconsin. It works to advance a sustainable world free from violence and injustice by connecting, engaging, and strengthening member groups and serving as a catalyst for community organizing and education. So you will see on your screen that you can donate directly from our website, fussmattison.org, you'll see the text to give information there as well. And there are also baskets here at the center doors of the auditorium. We thank you for your generosity and for your faith in this life we create together. Think about new life. To give thanks for the green and the growing things budding forth all around us. And we think of the new life and the new hope that lives within each of us. Now a symbol of new life for as long as we can remember is the butterfly. Perhaps this is because the story of the monarch butterfly is one of life's greatest mysteries and miracles. Every year the monarchs migrate south to places like the mountains of central Mexico. And then in a few months they migrate back north again. The longest distance that the butterflies are known to travel is from Ontario, Canada to central Mexico. A distance of about 1,800 miles. The butterfly is one of Earth's most beautiful and graceful creatures. The monarch is one of the prettiest of them all. But the monarch butterfly is not always so beautiful. Before it becomes that creature you and I picture when we think of butterflies, it goes through several stages. Does anybody know the stages of a butterfly? What's first? It's first, exactly. What happens after the egg? A caterpillar, right? Okay, what happens to the caterpillar? What is it, what does the caterpillar build? A chrysalis, a cocoon, right? What is all of that called? What's that really big word from the egg to the butterfly? I'm so far away. Phophysis, that is a huge word. The creature that eventually becomes the monarch butterfly is a powerful symbol for us. Because even as an egg, the beauty is there inside it. It's there from the very beginning, just waiting to get out. Now we have a lot in common with that butterfly, for we have great beauty inside each and every one of us. It's been there since birth. And it's always there waiting for us to let it shine. There may be times when we don't feel very beautiful, when the world may seem lonely and cold, when we may doubt our own potential or our own power. Maybe these are the times when we're shut in our own cocoons. Maybe waiting, maybe healing, maybe changing, until the time comes when we remember that new life, transformation is possible for each and every one of us. So whenever you see a butterfly, may it be a reminder of the beauty that is within you, the beauty within each and every one of us, the beauty that is just waiting to shine and be a blessing to this world. It has once again gone the round of the seasons, from the vibrant green of spring's new life, to the lush richness of warm summer, to the brilliant fulfillment of riotous autumn, to the chilling winds and bright icy snows of winter. Now we stand again, entranced by the promise of new life in the spring. Here at this moment when we hold the hope of spring, at this moment in this act of faith, we find a new beginning. In the purple of the crocus, the yellow of the daffodil, the dawn song of unseen birds. At this moment we gather as humans have always gathered to celebrate life, to celebrate rebirth, to celebrate hope and love. Flowers have long been a symbol of spring, symbols of the miracle of life as we watch them break through the crusty dry barren ground and remind us that new life is possible, that life and we are ever being born anew out of the soil of what has gone before. So today we would like to give each child some seeds to take home and plant. These seeds are in the shape of butterflies. To remind you that these are not only seeds that will help the butterflies and add beauty to our world, within these seeds is also hope. What do you think these seeds are going to be? Flowers, some kind of flowers, I have no idea, but it's some kind of flowers. Now, what if I just scattered all these butterflies on the floor right here? What would happen? They wouldn't grow, right? What do they need? Soil and water. You guys are brilliant, you know that? Like these seeds need other things to come to life. First, we start with our imaginations. We imagine something that we're hoping for. So take a second and close your eyes and imagine something that you're hoping for. Your hopes are like seeds. They just need a little work, a little care, a little action, a little help to come to life. Like these seeds becoming beautiful flowers. And one important question, could we have the flowers without first having the seed? No, right? The same way, every extraordinary thing that anyone has ever done has begun with an ordinary person and their hope, their imagination of what could be and the action to help it grow to life. That's the power of spring and the power of hope. As these flowers grow under your watchful care. Remember this community. Remember that like flowers, we unfold gently and slowly, bit by bit, in the sunshine. Each of us in our own way is here to reveal our own true wonder and beauty and to care and honor the beauty of each around us. Our work is to be gardeners of hope and dreams wherever we are, everywhere. Seeds are beginning to take root. Seeds of love, seeds of friendship and understanding, seeds of peace. Let us tend our seeds and one another with great care. These gifts are very tender and delicate. Let us water them with love. So we're going to pass these baskets around during our closing hymn. You can grab one and keep them moving. Stay seated and sing number 163. Peace this Easter. Peace that allows us to be open to the newness of the season and gives us reason to sing blessed be and go in peace. I'm going to come with me and she's a killer piano player and we can play tracks, walkers and play.