 Come to 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 Elizabeth Barrett, and on behalf of the congregation, I would like to extend a special welcome to visitors. We are a welcoming congregation. So whoever you are and wherever you are on your life's journey, we celebrate your presence among us. We gather together out of the routines of our week to give pause, to take a deep breath, to listen to our hearts. We give thanks for this extraordinary blessing. Here may our minds stretch, our hearts open, and our spirits deepen. We are so very glad that you are here. I invite you to join me now in a few moments of silence for contemplation, meditation, or prayer as we settle in and come fully into this time and place together. Please rise and body our spirit for our in-gathering hymn, number 298. I sense this and hear the earth call my conscience with justice thy guide, join God's love. Please remain standing for our opening and the lighting of our chalice. In rocking the boat and sitting down, between stirring things up and peaceably going along, we find ourselves here in community, each called from many different journeys, many different life paths onto this river road. Some are here because the rocking of the boat has been too much, too much tumult, too much uncertainty, too much pain. Some are here with questions about where this boat is going, how best to steer it, where the journey ends. Others are here as lovers of the journey, lovers of life itself. Here each a passenger, each a captain, doing the best we can. Listen to how I flow, the river calls. Rest here with me, the sound of life coursing all around you. Let the current hold you, let the current guide you, the river that gently flows through your soul as it whispers, come, let us worship. And if you will join together in our affirmation as we light our chalice. In these times, let us look first to the response of love. In the midst of challenge, may our chalice flame bear witness to the inherent worth and dignity of every human being. In the midst of uncertainty, may our chalice be a beacon of encouragement that our values may guide our choices. Let us look first to the response of love. And if you will take a moment now to turn and greet those around you. If you arrived here today with a sorrow so heavy that you need the help of this community to carry it. Or if you came with a joy so great it simply must be shared, now is that time. The sharing of joys and sorrows is our time. In the spirit of acceptance and support, to share with one another some special event or circumstance that has affected your life or the life of a loved one in recent days or weeks. So for the next few minutes, anyone who wishes is invited to step to the front of the auditorium, light a candle using the microphone provided by Lois, our lay minister, briefly share with us your message. You may also come forward to wordlessly light a candle. And if for any reason you can't come forward, please raise your hand, Lois will bring the microphone to you. Lois, if you will please light our first candle in recognition of all that is happening in our country in the past week. And in recognition of all those among us who have been wounded by violence. For the many who are suffering and grieving with reopened wounds of past hurts. On this day we pray they receive support and healing. That voices are heard, stories acknowledged, experiences validated. To those who have been dismissed, turned away or ignored, we are sorry. May we all remember the effects of trauma are real and long lasting. May we recognize all of us are impacted by a culture of violence and hostility. By listening to one another may we become instruments of love, of healing, of justice and of peace. And I now open our time for the sharing of your sorrows and your joys. For the past month, month and a half I should say, I've been severely depressed, struggling with this darkness, this fear, this pain. And this is the first sermon I suppose that I've been able to make in quite a while. Because yesterday I got a sense of clarity when I had to do a very, very hard task, one that I had been fearing to do. And so the joy that I wanted to share is a sense of clarity and a sense of peace. And I'm happy to be back home in a community that has supported me for so long. Here are all these people. I had a very close friend who just couldn't, he was quite ill. And he finally decided that he couldn't take it anymore. And so he decided to quit eating, which is sort of a hard way to go. And it broke my heart and I missed him a lot. I missed my Philly. I got my first nursing job. Eleanor starts daycare on Monday and I got a bad-ass haircut. Hello, my name is Jennifer. This summer our daughter Phoebe was diagnosed with brain cancer. And our joy is that at September 30th we've endured all sorts of treatment. We're in the middle of maintenance. And our Phoebe still continues just to thrive and show us her strength and courage. And we just couldn't be more pleased that she's just handling all of this with the strength that she has. So it's very joyful right now. My name is Mary. And a couple of weekends ago my daughter fell and sprained both of her ankles. And because of that we were slow getting out of the overture center last night and met the two performing artists and got to have pictures with them. So it's kind of like, yeah, a joy and a concern. I'm sad that Jupiter died. Hi. My sorrow is that my dad, Jim Coburn, passed away earlier this year. And my joy is his goodness and the love that he brought to his family and his community. Lois, I feel like one last candle for all the joys and all the sorrows that are too tender to share that live in the fullness of our hearts. And now for our kids and teachers, we are going to sit tight while we hear one more song and then you can leave after the music is done. Thank you. First reading from Jonathan Chapman. Recently, he says, I ordered four foot tall rainbow bunnies for my congregation. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Just after I hit order, I wondered if we really needed them. After that day, one of my parishioners sent me a picture taken in front of a local church. On the lawn was an enormous banner with a picture of the holy family and the message, God's marriage equals one man plus one woman. Often people ask me why my congregation constantly hangs banners or four foot tall rainbow bunnies to welcome folks. They wonder why we're always lugging out our rainbows. This is why. Because you see every church says everyone is welcome, but many of them make that conditional. You're welcome, but not your relationship or who you love or how you look or how you think or how you believe. Most churches do not put up banners like the one I saw, but many aren't far off from sharing the same sentiment. Listen, people can think what they want and believe what they want. I don't have to agree with everyone, and they don't have to agree with me. But as long as there are congregation willing to limit God's welcome, ours will work hard to widen it. And as long as there are churchgoers who question the depth of love, we will keep hoisting our banners and hauling our doors open that proclaim its breath. The truth is that we will fall short, and we do. But we keep trying. Because you see there are people in the world who wonder if they could really be loved. If God could love them despite who they are. And in case that is you, yes, there is no despite about it. God could love you, God does love you, and so do we. And then this poem by Richard Gilbert, which he was inspired by the words of E.B. White, it is hard to know when to respond to the seductiveness of the world and when to respond to its challenge. If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I rise in the morning torn between the desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy it. This makes it hard to plan the day. So Richard Gilbert writes, I rise in the morning torn between the desire to save the world or to savor it, to serve life or to enjoy it, to savor the sweet taste of my own joy or to share the bitter cup of my neighbor, to celebrate life with exuberant step or to struggle for the life of the heavy laden. What am I to do when the guilt at my bounty clouds the sky of my vision, when the glow which lights my everyday illumines the hurting world around me, to savor the world or save it? Blood of justice, if such there be, take from me the burden of my question. Let me cast my eyes from all troubled folk. No, you will not let me be. You will not stop my ears to the cries of the hurt. You will not close my eyes to the sight of the afflicted. What is that you say? To save one must serve. To savor one must save. One will not stand without the other. Forgive me in my preoccupation with myself, in my concern for my own life I had forgotten. Forgive me, God of justice. Forgive me and make me whole. If you will rise in body or spirit for our next hymn, which is number 95. There is more love, there is more hope, there is more peace, there is more joy, there is more joy, there is more joy, there is more love, hope and peace and joy, son. Please be seated. Today marks the day, 248 years ago, when a miracle occurred. Perhaps our only Unitarian Universalist miracle, perhaps not, but it is the one that I know and like to tell. And that is the story of John Murray. Now as a child, Murray was raised by a strict Calvinist father who taught him that God was a power to be feared and a power to be obeyed. As John grew, he began to question these beliefs, coming into contact first with the Methodists and then with this preacher named John Relly. Relly was preaching this new doctrine of universal salvation. Now by this time Murray had an excellent life. He had a steady job, he had a loving wife, he had a young son, he had everything that he had dreamed of. And in an instant, everything changed. First his young son passed away and then his wife became ill. Murray moved her to the country, hiring nurses and renting a cottage for them to live in. But his efforts failed and his wife died soon after. John was left heartbroken and debt-ridden. Now before these losses, he had grown a reputation as a formidable preacher. So James Relly encouraged him to join him in becoming a preacher of universal salvation. Murray decided that instead he was going to spend his remaining years in solitude in a new world. He had heard stories of America's independent spirit and plentiful resources. Also with no connections and no plans, he boarded a ship called the Hand in Hand. He was bound for New York and a new life. Before reaching their destination, however, fog came in and the hand in hand ran aground on a sandbar off the coast of New Jersey. John volunteered to go ashore in search of provisions for the crew and by chance he encountered an elderly man named Thomas Potter. Now Potter had recently built a meeting house on his property for itinerant preachers. He greeted John Murray, he gave him food for everyone on the ship and he invited him to return for dinner that evening. Now Thomas Potter was a farmer who worked a small plot of land and spent a great deal of time contemplating the nature of things. Potter thought long and hard and he sought out preachers with whom he could discuss life, the afterlife, the nature of humanity and the nature of the divine. He welcomed all kinds of clergy into that meeting house for theological debates and he had become intrigued by this emerging controversial new movement of universalism. This movement that claimed that all souls would be returned to God, there was no everlasting punishment after death. Potter was intrigued and he waited for such a preacher to arrive. So when John Murray returns for dinner Potter shows him his chapel and he says that many preachers had been through these doors but that he was waiting for one who oddly enough preached a message of universal salvation. There was no doubt in Potter's mind that God had caused the hand in hand to run aground at that spot, that the winds were calm because God had made it so because he had sent John Murray to him. He urged John to preach but John refused saying that he was determined to leave his past behind to never preach again that he was going to sail for New York as planned and here is where the miracle occurs. Thomas Potter asks him again to stay through Sunday so that he could preach that morning and Murray says I cannot sir because as soon as the wind changes my boat will set sail and I must be on it and Potter's reply was the wind will never change sir until you have delivered to us in that meeting house a message from God. The wind remained calm for days all the way until Sunday September 30th 1770. Thank you. Where John Murray preached the first known universalist sermon on American soil in a meeting house that Thomas Potter built. The story goes that just after Murray concluded his sermon a sailor ran up to inform him that low and behold the wind had changed that the ship was free that they could now set sail for New York. Murray felt his sense of calling and purpose return and he went on to spread the message of the kindness and everlasting love of God up and down the east coast founding the first universalist church in the United States in Gloucester, Massachusetts and creating the roots of one part of our Unitarian Universalist faith today. Now for us 248 years later this may seem like a lovely story our own miracle something that really makes for a good message for all ages but we must remember what a radical message it truly was. Universalists were Christians who believed in universal salvation rejecting both the notion of a fiery hell and also a wrathful god that would send anyone there in the first place. They believed that God was good loving patient and forgiving. It was at the time a shocking message. If you were found to be a universalist you could not sit on a jury in a court of law because how could you possibly judge morality if you believed in forgiveness rather than punishment? There's a story told of another prominent universalist Hosea Baloo where a man approached him and said, Brother Baloo if I were a universalist and feared not the fires of hell I could hit you over the head steal your horse and saddle and ride away and I would still go to heaven and Baloo looked at him and said sir if you were a universalist the idea would never come to you. Now the statement tells us a great deal of the thinking of the time the communal ideals of puritanism were waning and society was becoming increasingly focused on the individual. A religion based on retribution and punishment was needed to keep people in line. If there was no fear of an eternal reckoning why on earth would anyone be good? The historian Ann Lee Bressler writes of this time there was a loss of community being caused by the shattering of religious life and increasing complexity in economic relationships and the influence of the market population growth and migration. Universalists saw a growing and deeply concerning emphasis on personal salvation. A narrow view that excluded genuine concern for anyone else. They believed that faith had deteriorated and become contracted and selfish. For universalists conversion was not about some private experience of God but an understanding of salvation as social and communal. This declaration of love for all people led universalists to be early social reformers and by the early 1900s they were arguing that the hell we must concern ourselves with had nothing to do with the afterlife but the real human created hell we were living in right here and now. They argued then I believe they would still argue it today that hell comes in the form of any unjust oppressive fear-filled social and economic system that gives much to a very few and nothing to a great number. The universalist Clarence Skinner said our idea of God is that of an imminent spirit whose only nature is love. It was this sense of loving all here and now no exceptions that drew me toward unitarian universalism 20 years ago and it's what keeps me here today. The first UU congregation I ever walked into in Louisville, Kentucky had this huge banner in the lobby that said welcome to a life affirming not death defying faith. I was so confused so when I met with their minister Elwood Sturdivant I pointed to the banner and said well first off could you tell me what that means? And he said here's the difference. We're not trying to save anyone from eternal damnation. We don't think there is any and our focus is not on what happens after death. Our focus is on saving people from the hells that can be here and now and telling everyone that you are welcomed, you are affirmed and you are loved. My colleague Joanna Crawford came up with this fabulous phrase where she was trying to say the same thing love the hell out of this world. Now many have claimed it as an elevator speech why they are here a personal mission statement and a core theological statement because it is indeed catchy. You can't help but smile when someone says what's a unitarian universalist and you say we're the people who love the hell out of this world and it can mean different things. I like to think that John Murray someone who would say give them not hell but hope would really like it. So one way to look at this modern view of universalism is that we're going to love the world and everything in it a lot. This is the savoring part of our reading from Richard Gilbert. In the morning I rise and am torn between the desire to savor the world or to save it. When we love the world in this way we are in awe over the miracles of the every day of all the forces that had to align to create our very existence that we are made of the stars that we can find love and beauty and meaning. When we love the world in this way everything and everyone in it is holy. Now another way to interpret Joanna's catchy phrase is the saving part. We can easily look around us and see people living in a kind of hell day in and day out. The fear and anxiety experienced by those who have always been seen as expendable not valued imprisoned in poverty oppression and isolation loving this world broken and flawed means driving out hate with love working with others to create beloved community here and now working for a world in which all are respected with access to opportunity justice and life. When Joanna says that we are the people who will love the hell out of this world she's calling on our universalist foundation that tells us that God loves each of us and we need to treat each other accordingly. If we are indeed connected in mystery and miracle to one another and this great web of life we share then no one can be free of suffering if others are oppressed. The UU minister Josh Powlik writes that today our universalist theology manifests as a life saving life giving life enhancing religious response to all those theologies that drive arbitrary wedges between people that seek to frighten people into faith that teach people of their inherent sinfulness rather than their beauty worth and potential. Much of the pain in our world today comes from dividing ourselves up into tribes and a group separating ourselves one from another attaching labels to make it clear into which group we belong. The walls we create make it difficult to do the work of this life. The Sufi poet Hafi said out of a great need we are all holding hands and climbing not loving is a letting go. Listen the terrain around here is far too dangerous for that. The terrain around here is indeed far too dangerous for that for not loving not hanging on hanging in together so we move out of our areas of comfort to hold on to one another and hang on loving the hell out of this world is no easy task yet it is so worth it and can only spread and grow. The Rev. Mark Morrison read reminds us that in being loved we learn to love in return those who are loved love others those who feel God's infinite love within themselves will feel so good about themselves so connected to life so full of compassion that they won't be able to help but spread that love they will overflow with it. We can be that force of love that our universalist forebears spoke of the ones to create a heaven on earth for all people and all creatures building communities speaking our truth changing the world. We are called to savor the world and to save it to bring hope to the hurting to listen to those in pain comfort those who mourn celebrate the ones who have found their strength loving this world means being in relationship with it hanging on to all of it not with division or walls but in recognition of the one life we share. Our world is an overwhelming place filled with anxiety pain and fear we're living in times that many of us cannot understand and we wonder what to do on the night after the 2016 election there was a russian band playing right here in town and someone had asked them a question before the show so during the show they answered it they said that they were asked what do we do we are entering a new era in our country that we do not understand you have dealt with an oppressive regime in your country and their answer was act locally take care of your local communities love those around you those you know and those you do not know look around you who can you help who can you touch who can you care for the reverend Don Cooley said that loving this world means constantly expanding who we are it means challenging ourselves to not turn away from the pain within ourselves and the pain in others loving the hell out of this world means loving one another out of hell it means listening to one another learning from one another helping each other it doesn't mean we will always agree but it means we will stay in conversation because our mission is the same even if our politics or theology are different it means overcoming fear bitterness and hatred with abounding and embodied love our shared vision is one in which we love one another out of suffering out of injustice it is the universalist vision we hold within us it is why we side with love may we leave here today with the call to love this world and everything in it with all we've got the terrain is far too dangerous for us to do anything else and i now invite us into the giving and receiving of the morning's offering our outreach offering recipient is the native vote project you can find out more about them in your order of service or at the table out in the commons and we thank you for your generosity I appreciate the gifts of all those who helped our service this morning readers were Claire Box and Pamela McMullen our ushers are Tom Dolma, Brian Chanis, Gail Bliss, and Ross Woodward David Bryles is on sound and our hospitality is being provided by Sandy Plisch and Bissnitschke our lay ministers Lois Evenson and Ann Smiley and John Powell is our tour guide so if you are interested in a tour after the service today please meet John up front here by the ramp we have one opportunity to let you know of today and that is to please join us for our partner church open house later today at one o'clock in courtyard rooms A, B, and C there will be delicious Hungarian desserts stories and images of our partner church in Najoy to Romania we would love to share the stories and them with all of you and if you'll rise now for our closing hymn number 300 Boys and Huns go in hope for the arc of the universe is long and we can bend it toward justice go encourage for together we have the strength to confront the injustice in our daily lives and the larger world go in love because a holy and generous love the love that lives in each and every one of us is both the reason and the means by which we transform our lives and our world we extinguish our chalice but not the light of love or the warmth of this community those remain within us until we gather again blessed be go in peace and please be seated for the postlude