 Please join in a moment of censoring silence so we can fully present with each other this morning. Let's get musically present with each other by turning to the words for gathering him which you find inside your order of service. Hey everybody and welcome to a beautiful Sunday morning here at First Unitarian Society where independent thinkers gather in a safe nurturing environment to explore issues of social spiritual and ethical significance as we try to make a difference in this world. I'm Steve Goldberg a proud and very charming member of this congregation and I'd like to extend a special welcome to any guests, visitors and newcomers. If this is your first time at First Unitarian Society I think you'll find that it's a special place and if you'd like to learn more about our special buildings we should have a tour guide today to conduct a tour for you. If you're interested in that just meet over here by the windows after the service and we'll take care of you. If there is no tour guide that's okay because we'd love to spend some time with you during the hospitality hour right outside the doorway in the commons. This would be a great time to silence those pesky electronic devices that you just will not need during the next hour and that goes for those of you watching at home as well. So while you're taking care of that task let me remind you that if you're accompanied by a youngster today and you think that that young companion would rather experience the service from a more private spot we have a couple options for you including our child haven in the back corner of the auditorium and some comfortable seating just outside the doorway in the commons from which you and your youngster can see and hear the service and one of the reasons we are able to see and hear the service today is that it is brought to us by a wonderful team of volunteers who deserve our thanks our gratitude our hugs and our high fives and maybe even put them in your will because we really appreciate their volunteer service. I'm talking about Pete Daly who's running the sound system today. Our greeters upstairs Mary Savage and Pamela McMullen our lay minister Tom Boykoff our ushers Tom Dalmage Brian Channis John McGevna and Dan Bradley our hospitality and coffee provider Nancy Kossoff and John twos has made sure that the foliage up here is vibrant and properly watered no other announcements today except the number 19 that that's how many days until cabaret on Friday evening May 12 this entire place will be turned into one Irish party we're going to spend the night in Ireland and you're going to have a chance to enjoy Irish music food I won't say Irish food but food and a wonderful silent and live auction a chance to connect with people and just have a lot of fun cabaret is one of the real fun events in our annual calendar when my kids were younger they used to call first Unitarian society the cabaret church so if you want to buy tickets in advance and save a little money you can do that during the hospitality hour and before you sit back to enjoy today's service let me just add that cabaret is coming it'll be here real soon we'll spend the night in Ireland and we'll dance to some Irish tunes we'll have a silent auction and a live one wait and see and we'll raise a lot of money for first society whoever you are hear that voice calling you calling us that voice which calls us together here today in this room made holy by our presence and by the sacred breath we share in our singing and speaking and silence that voice which calls us to remember that we are not alone and that we are inextricably linked to all other life woven into a vast tapestry of existence of which we are a powerful integral and holy part and just as we have been called together here today we act as the voice the heart the hands of another call the call to walk with the wanderers to sing and dance with the worshipers proclaim the memory of those who have taken their leave wrap the despairing and the broken in the arms of love and community and hold the hands of all of us and call us back again and again to the covenantal work of justice humility and steadfast faithfulness for this we are here together today so my friends come yet again come and if you will rise and body your spirit to join in the affirmation for our chalice lighting printed in your order of service we light our flaming chalice to illuminate the world we seek in the search for truth may we be just in the search for justice may we be loving and in loving may we find peace and before we join together in song if you'll take a moment and greet those around you like to come closer for our story today to come on up how are you like in the nice weather to get outside to get outside even if your brother's dragging you down come on down you want to be over there huh welcome Len Len's our big kid it's nice to see you guys here today you dyed your hair oh I see pink in there very cool I think I might try that next time I go and say put in a little pink what do you think and she's like no you ever moved to a new school or a new house you have that can be pretty tough right especially moving to a new school you know somebody who moved yeah well our story today is about a girl named Vivian who moved with her mom to a town right on the ocean in South Carolina and this is Vivian's story and there are pictures that are going to be up see them it's called follow the moon home you wish that thing wasn't there if that thing wasn't nine gazillion pounds I would just move it right out of the way for you do you want to come over here I know it's really just in the way right I'm gonna have to do something about that Vivian and her mom were moving boxes into their new house and Vivian was worried about finding her way in this new place before long you will feel right at home said her mom but Vivian wasn't so sure now the next day at her new school her teacher mr. J said welcome Vivian you are just in time for the fun we are looking for a problem to solve Vivian got out her pencil and bit her lip did you ever do that when you're nervous just kind of bite your lip a little bit like that Vivian rode her bike all over town looking for a problem mostly she just got lost on Saturday she took her two dogs Samson and Luna for a run on the beach she laughed as they pulled her along and she said let's make a gigantic hole the dogs dug bigger and bigger holes until it was raining sand a man walked by and said that looks like a lot of fun but be sure you fill in that hole because it's nesting season Vivian smoothed out the sand and said nesting season what is nesting season and a voice behind her said it's because of the babies Vivian turned to see a girl from school now look at that sign can you tell what the babies are yeah whoa loggerhead turtles that's exactly right I'm Clementine the girl said baby sea turtles need a clear path to the sea and if there are holes or there are sand castles that'll get in their way Vivian said I didn't know that we had sea turtles here we do Clementine said and sometimes they need our help now later that night Vivian and her mom went down to the beach Mr. Jay had told them to use their eyes to look for a problem and as darkness fell they could see the bright lights coming on one by one in the shore see him coming on in all those houses there that's it Vivian cried the lights in the houses are the problem why would the lights in the houses be the problem yeah I stand by the fact that we have the smartest children in the world in this congregation she's exactly right did you hear what she said the turtles have to follow the light of the moon to get out to the ocean and if all the bright lights of the houses are behind them what could happen the moon be able to see the moon and then they'll follow the lights of people's houses and end up going the wrong way but Vivian said there's so many houses how can I ask all of these people to turn off the lights and her mother said the trickier part is that most of these houses are vacation rentals so new people come every few days we'd have to knock on the doors every single night Vivian said so clearly Vivian needed help to solve the problem and she knew just where to get it so on Monday morning Clementine and Vivian raised their hands first they told the class what they learned and what they knew about the loggerhead sea turtles the sea turtle eggs are starting to hatch Vivian said and to save the hatchlings we need the whole class the whole town to help and that's how lights out for loggerheads began their classroom became the loggerhead lab they gathered lots of information they read books they visited and an aquarium and a sea turtle hospital they had speakers come and talk to their class they brainstorm solutions and they got to work they made posters and delivered them all over town they wrote fact sheets that they could hang in all the beach houses and to pay for the printing and the flyers they held a bake sale Andy the coffee shop man donated a whole pan of his famous granola and everyone they asked said I'm happy to help the editor promised to put Vivian's article in the newspaper the printer gave them a discount two other students learned how to spread the word on the internet Mr. Jay helped them write a press release and Vivian was on television as the class spokesperson they invited volunteers from South Carolina United turtle enthusiasts known as scoot to a town meeting and when the big night arrived the room was packed the room was buzzing with ideas they talked about how to make the beach a great place for turtles what you needed to do mark nests run nightly patrols and what to do if hatchlings got in trouble and at the end they decided to form their own volunteer group people cheered and Mr. Jay said I am so proud of you all that was the best night ever until on the last night of summer Vivian and her mother and her class and their parents all went on turtle patrol everyone smiled as they watched the lights along the beach go out one by one they had done it suddenly a movement on the sand caught their eye over here Vivian whispered they crept closer careful to stay quiet the crescent moon was shining on the waves the sea was glittering like silver she saw one then two what do you think turtles baby turtle hatchlings no more than two inches long all of them bursting from the nest would they know where to go and they were off scurrying over the sand and right where they needed to be right into the ocean and they stood together smiling and silent with wonder and just like those turtles they turned around and followed the moon home if I love this story well because I kind of got a thing for turtles I love turtles but I also love the fact that this elementary school class got a whole town together to do something that needed to be done and it's just a reminder of the power we have when we all come together thanks for being such great listeners we are going to rise in body or spirit and sing you out to classes with our next him 163 please be seated our first reading this morning from Mark Nepo in the winter I met a man in South Africa after several days together I asked him about Ubuntu he said it is a deep African custom he didn't explain but rather repeated its meaning more slowly and with deeper reverence it means I am because you are you are because I am Ubuntu it is something I have always believed in that in the ignited space of our deepest suffering in the release of our deepest fears in the familiar piece of our deepest joys we are each other I've been finding it in every way on the path in how we live off the breath of plants and how plants live off our exhalations I find it in Martin Buber sense of I thou we're only in keeping what is between us real can God appear in the gift of Jesus where two or more of you come together there I am in the one compassion of Buddha in the numinous love that ancient stones emanate if we are still enough to bow to them Ubuntu I am because you are you are because I am how amazing and true it is we need each other to be complete and a second reading is a poem by Wendell Berry it is hard to have hope it is harder as you grow old for hope must not depend on feeling good and there is the dream of loneliness at absolute midnight you also have withdrawn belief in the present reality of the future which surely will surprise us and hope is harder when it cannot come by prediction any more than by wishing but stop dithering the young ask the old for hope what will you tell them tell them at least what you say to yourself because we have not made our lives to fit our places the forests are ruined the fields eroded the streams polluted the mountains overturned hope then to belong to your place by your knowledge of what it is that no other place is and by your for you and by your caring for it as you care for no other place this place that you belong to though it is not yours for it was from the beginning and will be to the end belong to your place by knowledge of the others who are your neighbors in it the old man sick and poor who comes like a heron to fish in the creek and the fish in the creek and the heron who man like fishes for the fish in the creek and the birds who sing in the trees in the silence of the fishermen and the heron and the trees that keep the land they stand upon as we too must keep it or die this knowledge cannot be taken from you by power or by wealth it will stop your ears to the powerful when they ask for your faith and to the wealthy when they ask for your land and your work answer with knowledge of the others who are here and how to be here with them by this knowledge make the sense you need to make buy it stand in the dignity of good sense whatever may follow speak to your fellow humans as your place has taught you to speak as it has spoken to you speak its dialect as your old compatriots spoke it before they had heard a radio speak publicly what cannot be taught or learned in public listen privately silently to the voices that rise up from the page of books and from your own heart be still and listen to the voices that belong to the stream banks and the trees and open fields there are songs and sayings that belong to this place by which it speaks for itself and no other found your hope then on the ground under your feet your hope of heaven let it rest on the ground underfoot be it lighted by the light that falls freely upon it after the darkness of the nights and the darkness of our ignorance and madness let it be lighted also by the light that is within you which is the light of imagination buy it you see the likeness of people in other places to yourself in your place it lights invariably the need for care toward other people other creatures in other places as you would ask them for care toward your place and you moments after a piece of music that you just want to go less it be going peace this is one of those moments thank you and I got to tell you after you sing the closing hymn today with the man who created it according to Facebook last night that was the highlight for the 430 service singing blue boat home with Peter Mayer but you're here and I'm here so we'll forge ahead many years ago when I was an intern in Philadelphia Dan and I were fortunate to be able to live with his parents one of the first things I noticed when we moved into their home was the appearance of maps seemingly everywhere they were large and framed hung on the walls they were on side tables and kitchen counters in books on bedroom shelves in purses and glove compartments I remember asking Dan about his family's fascination with maps and his reply well it's how you understand the world how you know where you're going how you decide where you want to be and figure out how you can get there maps help you make sense of things well these days I feel like I need a new map if maps help you understand the world if they help you make sense of things then I need a new one because when I look around I see a divided nation that seems to be losing its way increasing climate constriction around the globe and here at home unprecedented challenges to this American experiment in democracy and the impact of all of these on the most vulnerable among us we need a new map a new understanding of this complex world a new way new markers to help us determine where we want to be and how we're going to get there for millennia and still today there were people known as wayfinders those guided by stars swells dunes and scents to the islands and the villages that have sustained them in their descendants for generations they would find relatively unmarked routes and discover new markers to guide them and to guide those who would come after what would a map for our times look like what markers could we use to lead us from despair into hope or perhaps even into change I would like to claim the lived experience of wonder as our first marker wonder is where we can begin actually we'll begin with this story from the philosopher and author Kathleen Dean Moore which starts with wonder bread it was a white Buick she writes trailing a string of gulls it parked beside me in a gravel pullout catching the wind the gulls winged furiously over the car squawking the passenger door opened and bedroom slippers on thin long legs lowered themselves to the ground without warning slices of bread flew up like toast from a cartoon toaster and gulls swarmed to the open door on the driver's side a woman opened the door grasped the frame and pulled herself to standing the gulls circled her as she made her way to the back of the car when she opened the trunk the gulls went wild the woman reached into her trunk for a loaf of bread she pulled out as much as she could hold in one hand and she tossed it all into the air gulls caught it on the fly what fell to the ground quickly disappeared how many gulls 100 200 I cycled closer not wanting to scare the birds or intrude but wanting to feel the wind of those flapping wings she saw me coming want some she offered and in fact I really did she beckoned me over to her trunk and I saw that every nook and cranny was crammed with bread one plastic grocery bag after another each bag stuffed with five full loaves of soft wonder bread safeway sells it she said five loaves for a dollar we've been doing this every day for ten years it's what we do I stood next to her and tossed bread into the wind she gave me half another loaf I would have liked to have eaten it myself I was that hungry for what that woman offered not just the bread but her closeness to the birds but I tore the pieces threw them and slowly backed away there stood the woman her face lifted to the birds her arms wide open in the universal gesture of exaltation gulls fluttered around her in the weeks after I thought about that woman and I thought about how one goes about living like that with that extravagant joy and astonishment how it becomes what you do that hard embrace of what is wonderful which is everything when you think about it every single thing in this mysterious miraculous morning drenched world we were nourished that day by wonder bread not the bread itself but the nourishment that came from being surrounded by flocks of living beings of astonishing beauty humans need this connection this delight the way plants need sunlight if there's one fact true of human beings I would suggest it is this that we want to love and be loved delight and be delighted give and be given in the back and forth relatedness that earns us a meaningful place in the pantheon of all being the very muscles that allow us to raise our arms in gladness are the muscles that allow the gull to fly I believe that this universal yearning lifting toward life is the greatest most enduring wonder of all opening ourselves to this sense of wonder this delight in this universal yearning to love and be loved we can be drawn naturally to the next marker on our path the wisdom and knowing and deep need of belonging belonging like wonder is something we need as much as bread and water and sunlight belonging is the sense that we are accepted we are loved we are valued just as we are it is a basic human need right there in Maslow's hierarchy right after food and shelter is belonging when we do not have a place we belong when we do not belong to a group or a people we are lonely and our lives lack fullness we're at risk for alienation intense sadness despair belonging is at the center of our religious life we believe that people fundamentally belong to each other and to the earth and we need one another to create vibrant strong communities today we welcome new members people who have decided to join their stories with ours to find one more place in their lives where they belong to one another and to something larger than any of us in this world of separation and alienation we want to know and be known Mark Nippo told us of Ubuntu I am because you are how true it is we need each other to be complete people walk into this congregation in response to all sorts of longings community guidance support inspiration music education a place to be still a time to breathe to grieve to prepare for the week ahead they long for a way to respond to the hurts of the world or the pains of their life each one of us can think of the longing that brought us here Susan Ritchie writes of her experience with Unitarian Universalism in an essay titled let the wrong ones in somewhere along the line she says someone left the door open for me someone invited me in someone made the way for me even though there is no equivalent of me in our forebears imagination and when things have been bad this tradition has carried me around and given me over and over again the invitation to relationship the invitation to be human as human as I dare the invitation to belong it is my hope that every person who walks through our doors whether you have been here 50 years or today is the first time that all will experience this invitation to be as human as you dare to belong saying that the need to belong goes deeper than one congregation or organization we need belonging with a capital B a sense of belonging taken farther out than we might have thought before belonging to all life in our western tradition we have held a hierarchy of beings with humans being at the tippy tippy top but in native ways of knowing humans are referred to as the younger brothers of creation it can be said that we have the least experience here and therefore the most to learn and we can find wisdom in the teachings of other species big B belonging is feeling at home on this earth feeling at home in this universe feeling a call to connect and to care and what happens if we can think of that marker of belonging with the big B what happens when we think of it as all creatures of the earth and sky this is where we find hope Wendell Berry told us in the reading it is hard to have hope it's harder when you grow old for hope must not depend on feeling good and there's the dream of loneliness at absolute midnight you also have withdrawn belief in the present reality of the future which surely will surprise us and hope is harder when it cannot come by prediction anymore than by wishing but stop dithering the young ask the old to hope what will you tell them is there a reason to hope with all we know of our world today why would we have hope because hope isn't just about reasons it's much more complicated hope may be an emotion that runs counter to reason if we had reason to hope we wouldn't need it we could just go with the evidence hope is something more eco philosopher Joanna Macy tells us that hope is radical imagining a courageous affirmation of what you value a vision that might not be seen by the eye but is alive in your ability to imagine something different Joanna calls it active hope she tells us hope is a kind of process thinking a movie that changes from frame to frame to create change over time if something is not in the picture at the moment that doesn't mean it won't be later on this way of conceiving reality sees existence as an evolving story rather than as predefined because we can never know for sure how the future will turn out it makes more sense to focus on what we would like to have happened and then do our bit to make it more likely that's what active hope is all about so when we look at our new map the markers have led us from wonder to belonging to hope and our last stop which is perhaps where we find the antidote to despair at our times this last stop is integrity here we find the way to move forward acting with integrity like what I have been re-learning in my travel through fourth grade math it hasn't been pretty I didn't know that an integer I didn't remember what that meant but I looked it up an integer a whole number from integrate autumn wholeness a consistency between what one believes and what one does poet Robinson Jeffers said integrity is wholeness the greatest beauty is organic wholeness the wholeness of life and things the divine beauty of the universe love that not humanity apart from that or else you will share humanity's pitiful confusions or drown in despair when the days darken Kathleen Dean Moore who gave us the story of Wonderbred also said that these times are the times that call for integrity we are called to live lives we believe in even if that means changing things people of integrity live gratefully because they believe that life is a gift they act reverently because they believe the world is sacred they live simply because they want there to be enough for all and they act lovingly toward the world because they love it don't ask will my act save the world or another person maybe they will maybe they won't rather ask yourself are my acts consistent with what I most deeply believe is right and good am I living from a place authentically rooted in my knowledge that is surely as we belong to the universe we belong together this is the calling to do what is right even if you can't see the good to celebrate and love the world to work for its healing even if it breaks our hearts to do so and hear those new map markers merge and become transformed into something else entirely wonder belonging hope and integrity when taken together they become stubborn defiant courage they become principled clarity and when courageous clear-minded people find one another it can be a powerful force for change a great rising tide of affirmation of justice and human decency and shared thriving you and I are not the first ones to struggle to ask what one person might do to look for a new in a different way and we're not going to be the last we understand that we're part of a global movement that will never end but will struggle on generation after generation until humanity finds a way to live in harmony and peace with one another and the earth or it fails James Baldwin wrote these words in nothing personal and I'll leave you with them today for nothing is fixed forever and forever and forever it is not fixed the earth is always shifting the light is always changing the sea does not cease to grind down rock generations do not cease to be born and we are responsible to them because we are the only witnesses they have the sea rises the light fails lovers cling to each other and children cling to us the moment we cease to hold each other the moment we break faith with each other the sea engulfs us and the light goes out may we be strong enough to reach out and hold on to one another as if our very lives depended on it because in the end we all know they do and if you'll join me now in a spirit of meditation spirit of life and hope rest in us now as we gather side by side in recognition of our common humanity and in our care for one another in our struggles and loss may we find comfort and hope in our times of celebration may we feel inspired and grateful may wisdom be ours as we navigate the transitions and challenges of this life together today we hold in our hearts sparrow senty who is at Capitol Lakes for rehab and we send her our strength and our love we hold Adam drop show brother of Rachel drop show and his family who are unexpectedly but very excitedly expecting their second child Ross Woodward who had surgery on Friday and is recuperating extremely well in the hospital and we send her our prayers for continued healing and strength also Kurt Stegi who has returned home after his surgery and is growing stronger every day and we pray that it continues we hold Fran Bicknell in our hearts and we send our loving thoughts to her in hospice may she know the many hearts that surround her and hold her close and finally our love to Kathleen Hoover and her family as they grieve the sudden loss of Mark Hoover Mark's memorial service will be held here in this room on Saturday morning the 29th at 11 a.m. we pray that Kathleen and her family will find peace and healing in the days to come may we be grateful for this community that holds us close for the miracle of life that we share and for the hope that gives us the power to care to remember and to love and I now invite you into the giving and receiving of the morning's offering which is an outreach offering and you can read more about native energy in your order of service we thank you for your generosity this weekend we're welcoming all those who officially joined first Unitarian since December of last year this worshiping community is a long and distinguished history and we're proud that these 25 people have chosen to join their journey with ours becoming a member of this congregation is on the one hand a fairly straightforward proposition when generally attends a series of orientation sessions signifies their intent to join is familiar with our UU principles and our bond of union which hold us together in community and then enters his or her name in our membership book that's all there is to it sometimes we are asked why would someone want to do this we join this congregation because we believe that the promotion of liberal religious values will make a difference in the world that a strong Unitarian Universalist movement will help make our community and the planet a more peaceful and compassionate place we make this commitment because we do believe in the transformative power of our communities and this faith tradition we join because we want to be part of a community that causes us to examine and re-examine ourselves our families our world on an ethical and moral level and also walk with us on our own spiritual journeys we join because we hunger to be in relationship with people who like us regard religion as an open-ended ongoing quest for deeper meaning and more honest and authentic connection our hope is that the experience of membership here will be an experience of abundance and joy in many ways for you on your continuing journey again welcome to membership in First Unitarian Society and now Lynn Scoby is going to read the names of our new members and please come forward as you hear your name and remember to bring your insert please Jill Rumichek Merlin Kreiko, Len Berry, Dana Connolly and if there are other new members whose names I didn't call and you'd like to be recognized please come forward the great parts about being on the board is that you get to welcome new members so do you accept the responsibilities and freedoms associated with membership in a Unitarian Universalist congregation do you pledge to support this religious community with your words your time and your substance are you willing to join the members of First Unitarian Society in a common quest for religious and spiritual understanding and for the common purpose of being reverent and compassionate lives I need to put my glasses on and do you accept these people into this community as companions in the spiritual journey do you pledge to rejoice with them in times of happiness to grieve with them in times of sorrow and to share with them all the blessings of our free faith unless in unison repeat our bond of union we the members of the First Unitarian Society of Madison desiring our religious organization in the spirit which shall make the integrity of life its first frame and leave the front free associate ourselves together and accept to our membership those of whoever theorical the promotion of truth righteousness reverence and charity and now our new members will be offered the right hand of fellowship a custom dating back to Pirate in Times the right hand of fellowship is a sign of acceptance and equality and if you'll join me in welcoming our new members the rise in body or spirit you made it this far so your reward is that you get to sing Blue Boat Home with Peter Mayer and you do have to say it that way if you tell anybody else that it happened from somewhere going from our homes our childhoods going from our cities and countries going from innocence to experience to enlightenment going into mystery and questions going into the desert going to the other side go forth leave behind the comfort and community of one place head into the anxiety of another carry with you the love and laughter of this place and let it light your way carry with you the wisdom you learned and the good memories may they give you strength for your journey and when you have been away long enough far enough done what you have set out to do been there so long that place to starts to feel like home come back come back to the one universal everywhere and every when and every one inclusive home this beloved community of all creation that you can never really leave blessed be and go in peace