 If you sit here and have a talk for two minutes, we'll be here in a minute. And then, when you sit up, I'll tell you everything. Is that right? Yes. Is that right? Yes. To begin with, would you like to come in? Come in here with me. I'll come in here so we can get you up. Come in here. Come in here. Come in here. Come in here. Come in here. Come in here. Come in here. Come in here. Come in here. Come in here. Good morning. Welcome to the First Unitarian Society of Madison, my program. Please join me in a moment of centering silence. Now please join me in singing the In Gathering Him, which is number 123. That's my favorite song. 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 Maureen Friend. 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 happen to be on your life journey, we celebrate your presence among us. New comers are encouraged to stay for fellowship hour after the service. You can look for people with a stone mug that was teal. You saw a slide of it in the slides this morning. These are people from FUS who are members and are knowledgeable about our faith community and they would love to visit with you. Experience guides are generally available to give a building tour after each service. So if you would like to learn more about the sustainably designed addition or our national landmark, the meeting house, please meet near this large glass window on the side of the auditorium immediately after the service. We welcome children to stay for the service. But if you or your child needs to talk or move around, the child haven, which is back in that corner, or the comments are good places to retire. This would be a good time to turn off all your electronics. And I'd like to now acknowledge those individuals who help our services run smoothly. So today the sound operator is Pete Daly. Lay minister is Tom Boykoff. We have three today, John McEvna and Anne Smiley. The person who greeted you warmly was Mary Elizabeth Kunkle. The ushers were Gail Bliss, Robin Perrin, Nancy Dalage, and Tom Delmidge. And the people who make our wonderful coffee this morning were Biss Nitschke and Nancy Koseff. Please note the announcements in the insert of the Order of Service. Those describe the upcoming events of the society and provide more information about today's activities. Again, welcome. We hope that today's service will stimulate your mind, touch your heart, and stir your spirit. I have a couple special announcements. Thank you to everyone who was involved with Cabaret on May 12th. We greatly appreciate the guests who attended, all the volunteers who helped, the members who donated all those auction items, and to everyone who bid on them. Just a reminder, if you bid on an auction item, please pick it up at the A8 staff office. Sometime between 9 and 4.30 weekdays. There are also some second chance auction items still available in the comments. Please check those out. If you have any questions, contact Molly Kelly. And also a reminder that our intern, Eric Severson, will end his time with us at the end of this month. So please stop by the inter-ministry table in the comments and write a personal message to Eric, which will be included in a gift. And we'll give that to him on his last day in the pulpit, which will be May 28th. Let this hour be for us a time of celebration and a time of renewal. In celebration, let our minds be awake to the common miracle of the earth, the sparkling grace of the river and the lake, and to the answering spirit within us. In renewal, let our minds be aware of the deep down freshness of this new day of holiness, let loose in creation and of the responding affirmation within. Let this hour be a time of celebration when we feel at one with the mystery in which we move and have our being. Let this hour be a time of renewal when we let go of past disappointments and present anxieties to embrace the healing power of our communion. I invite you to rise in body or in spirit for the lighting of our chalice. Please join me in reading the words of affirmation printed in today's program. May we each bring our best selves to this celebration, our ideals, dreams, and noble aspirations. May the flame we kindle symbolize our desire for a committed, compassionate, and constructive life. May this gathered community inspire us to pursue life's worthiest goals and in the spirit of friendship, I invite you to turn to your neighbor and exchange with them a warm greeting. Please be seated. And at this time I'd like to invite any children who are eager and willing to join me at the front for the message for all ages. We can find room in between all the flowers. There's a lot of color up here, right? Yeah, there's a whole lot of color. Did you know that flowers could come in so many colors? What else comes in a lot of different colors? Rainbows. Well, this is also a story about colors and about a different kind of colors. Yeah, well, if you know what, don't let the cat out of the bag. So, this is a story from an Indian tribe called the Papago, also known as the Hona Udom, and they live way down in southern Arizona, way on the other part of our country. And so one beautiful spring day, the creator, and there's the creator, was resting and sitting, and she was watching the children play in the village. And the children were laughing and they were singing, and yet, even though they were so happy, the creator's heart was sad. Well, why was the creator sad? Well, she was thinking to herself, these children, they're all little now, but they're all going to grow up, right? And you're all going to grow up and you're going to have work to do and responsibilities like all adults have, and you're going to have less time to play. And so some of your joy and your happiness is going to kind of disappear. That could be hard being an adult, that's right. Eventually, too, you grow up and then you grow old and you become weaker, your strength begins to fail, and the glow in your faces, it kind of disappears. And this is what was making the creator kind of sad. And then she was also watching some playful puppies. And the creator thought to herself, these creatures, too, these puppies, they're going to grow old and their beauty is not going to last. And all these wonderful flowers that we see here, they are going to lose their color eventually, right? They're going to stay this way and they're going to fade. New leaves on the trees, they're going to dry up and drop to the ground. And so despite all the joy and all the beauty and the color that she saw around her, the creator's heart, thinking about the future, was growing sadder and sadder all the time. She said, I know everything is going to change. Nothing is going to stay the same. Beauty never lasts. But then she was, you know, feeling kind of bad and she looked up and she kind of looked around and she was in the moment, she was in the present and she could see that it was warm outside, the sun was shining through the clouds and she watched the play of the sunlight and the shadow on the ground and the flower petals from the trees, they were drifting with the breeze, they were so, so pretty and she saw the intense blueness up in the sky and the whiteness of the cornmeal that the women were grinding in the village for their food. And then suddenly she smiled and she said, you know, all these colors, they're right here today, I can see them and they're so beautiful. They must somehow be preserved. So, I'm going to make something new, the creator said, something new that's going to bring joy back to the children's faces and joy back into my own heart. And so she took her bag, very special bag that she always carried, and she began gathering things to put in the bag. And she took a spot of sunlight and put it in the bag and she took a handful of blue out of the sky and she put it in the bag. She borrowed some of that whiteness from the cornmeal that the women were grinding in the village, put that in the bag, the shadow, the gray shadow from where the children had been playing, the blackness of a girl's hair. She took a little of that blackness and put it in the bag, the yellow of a daffodil, the green of pine needles and her desert flowers around her. She put all of this in her big bag and that is an afterthought. She said, I'm going to also put some of the songs of the birds in my bag. And then she walked over to the grassy spot where the children were all playing and she said, children, children, come look, this is for you. And she gave the bag several hard shakes and she handed it to one of the children and she said, open it, there's something really special inside for you. The child opened the bag and all at once, hundreds and hundreds of butterflies flew out, dancing around the children's heads, sitting on their hair, fluttering up to sip from the flowers and the children were absolutely amazed at these beautiful winged creatures. They've never seen anything before that was quite that pretty. You've all seen butterflies, right? Anybody been to Obrich Garden when they had the butterfly festivals? That's right. In the rain garden at Obrich you see all these different butterflies. But then something really interesting happened. All the butterflies are floating around and then what do you think happened? The butterflies began to sing and they were singing these beautiful songs. You ever heard a butterfly sing? No, the children were delighted with it. But then this little brown songbird comes along and settles on the creator's shoulder and begins scolding the creator saying it is not right what you did. You took our songs and you gave them to these pretty new creatures. Now when we were made, when we birds were made you said that every one of us was going to have our own special song and now what are you doing? You're just passing them all out willy-nilly. Isn't that enough that you gave these new play things all the beautiful colors? Did you have to give them our songs too? And so the creator was very, very fair-minded. She thought you know, I think you're right. I did create one song for each species of bird and it belongs to you and I shouldn't have given these songs away. So what do you think the creator did? She basically took the songs away from the butterflies and so today the butterflies are still very beautiful creatures but have you ever heard one sing? No. You've heard a butterfly sing. I want to see that butterfly. Well, thank you all for listening to our story from Southern Arizona. We're going to sit right here while we hear another song. Speaking of singing, thank you so much, choir. Thank you, Heather, for a wonderful year again. And this is our last, yes. This is the last day of church school classes until September. I hope we see some of you at summer fun during the summer months but let's give a round of applause to all of our teachers as well who have worked so hard to do it. So enjoy your classes this morning. And the Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of mammary. And as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day, he lifted his eyes and he looked around and behold, three men suddenly were standing in front of him. And when he saw them, he ran from his tent to meet them and bowed low down to the earth and said, my lords, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass your servant by. Let a little water be brought. Wash your feet. Rest yourselves under the tree while I fetch a morsel of bread that you might refresh yourselves. And then after that, you may pass on since you have come here to your servant. And they replied, go and do as you have said. And so Abraham pacing into the tent to his wife Sarah and said, make ready quickly three measures of fine meal. Need it and make case. And Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and good. And he gave it to the servant who hastened to prepare it. And then he took curds and milk and the calf which he had prepared and he set it all before the visitors. And he stood by them under the tree while they ate. And our second reading from the Christian scriptures, the Gospel of Luke. Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. Teacher, he said, what must I do to inherit eternal life? He said to him, what is written in the law? What do you read there? He answered, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength, with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself. And he said to him, you have given the right answer. Do this and you will live. But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, and who is my neighbor? Jesus replied, a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers who stripped him, beat him and went away leaving him for dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite when he came to the place and saw him passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came near him and when he saw him he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out to Denari gave them to the innkeeper and said take care of him and when I come back I will repay you whatever more you spend. Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers? He said the one who showed him mercy. Jesus said to him go and do likewise. And if you will rise now in body or spirit for our next hymn number 352 please be seated. A very common sight in Transylvanian homes are the words of the Seike Aldash or the Hazi Aldash the house blessing embroidered and framed hanging on the wall. The one hanging before you was a gift to our congregation by a Unitarian woman who runs a shop in the Transylvanian pottery village of Korond. Translated the blessing reads where there is faith there is love. Where there is love there is peace. Where there is peace there is blessing. Where there is blessing there is God. Where there is God there, there is no need. This embroidery was given to us last summer as 24 pilgrims made their way from Madison to Romania. We were an interesting group with ages ranging from 10 to 87 years with six ministers four from the US and two from the Kazi Hills in India. Some Unitarian Universalists since birth most yearning to learn more of their chosen faith. It was a special journey for me as I brought along that 10 year old Sam to meet a people so very far away in distance, language, culture yet such a very large part of who we are as a family of faith. 25 years ago our congregation became partnered with the Unitarian Church of Najueta in the Transylvanian region of Romania. It is a magical place. The photographer George Ivano describes it this way Romania is alive. It permanently offers us opportunities for spiritual healing. It means searching. It means living and everything is waiting for the traveler who has set off and evolved to love it. It is love and that is all. We will receive without expecting and we will be received in places, rooms and among people. We will be received as long lost family returning home to the arms of those who love us. Devoting ourselves to it to its people and its ways we will be hosted by immortality by day and by night. Many of you know the story of our partnership but let me retell it briefly as I like to do on every flower communion or every chance I get. On Christmas day in 1989 the reign of Nicolae Cecescu was ended and with it the Communist Party of Romania. Shortly before this happened our own Max Gabler minister here up until 1987 was in Europe and Max traveled to Colishvar to the Unitarian Church headquarters and he spoke with the people there. He asked what can we do? And the answer bring back the sister church program that was begun after World War II. With the fall of communism shortly after the reopening of communications with the West and the work of many in Romania Hungary and here in the US the partner church council began. In a letter in 1990 Max wrote to Michael at long last I have more reliable information concerning our sister church in Transylvania. By 1992 we had a name of the village willing to partner with us and Max along with Ruth Gibson and six others traveled to meet them face to face. The congregation of Nagioita gave that delegation this a carved laundry paddle and Ruth gave them this or this one was made for us so that we remembered the original is there I promise. This is an embroidery of the landmark building with the quote that is painted in that room. Now those folks in 1992 did not know that they were living out an ancient marriage ritual. A young man carves a laundry paddle for the one he wishes to marry and if the paddle is accepted he's given an embroidery in return. 25 years ago we committed ourselves for the long haul to the beautiful, generous, loving people of Nagioita. We have struggled to understand what life was like for them in those years of oppression. What life was like year after year. Several years ago Maria Pop, minister in Transylvania wrote these words which give us the beginning of an idea. Our 435 years of history as a church have been years of struggle and depression because of our faith or ethnicity or both. We endured Turkish, German, Russian, Romanian armies and we have behind us 40 years of communism from which we are struggling hard to get free. In all these times our unitarian church and faith was the source which gave us strength and sustenance to keep going. It did not shelter us from deceptions from treason from secret police from suspicion or from everyday miseries but taught us the importance of community and human solidarity the importance of faith in times of adversity. Since 1989 we've been trying to learn but the burden of the past is heavy. We were oppressed for so long that we forgot the taste of freedom. We had to keep silent for so long that we do not know how to use freedom of speech. We had to live in fear for so long that we rarely have the courage to stand up for our rights. We had to live in suspicion for so long that we feel vulnerable in bestowing trust. We were told what to do for so long that we are confused and frightened to make our own decisions. We're living now in a different world, she says but the wounds of the past are hard to heal. We have to relearn the lesson of freedom and democracy and all that it entails trust, tolerance, responsibility for others and ourselves the importance of the common good. For us you, America you were always the symbol of freedom and democracy of the land where people who fled all kinds of oppression who came from various cultural and ethnic backgrounds you live together in harmony. We looked upon you as our saviors our big brother who would step up and deliver us from oppression. We waited for you we waited for you for so long and you did not come. During the darkest years of communism when there was no food no electricity no heat the only thought which kept us going was the Americans will come but you did not. And then something miraculous happened you came and in a way which alleviated all our misapprehensions and made true our hopes and dreams you as unitarian universalists were looking for your roots for our common history and faith we were looking for help for sustenance and solidarity we found each other and we opened up new ways of understanding and enriching our lives we are the old ones with roots firmly grounded with cobwebs here and there but looking forward to a future symbolized by you relying on your strength your visits teach us about the strength and commitment you have to your chosen faith and gives us that wonderful feeling of knowing we are not alone. Your dedication and solidarity remind us that faith and religion they are not about abstract theological debates but about love about caring for one another working for justice and peace for all of us and in all of us what does having a partner congregation mean? What does it mean to be in relation with people in a small village in the Carpathian mountains in Mania? What does it mean to visit there? To leave the main road and travel through the narrow streets of other villages to come to a rise in the road and head down the other side and see the village hall and the school the small grocery store the parsonage the community house the carved gate with Ishtyn Algion carved in the top and his daughter she says Bless you there is the courtyard and there are the people Leventa the minister and his wife Yutka their children the mayor and his family the people they are crying and we are crying we scramble off the bus throw away Moments we will never forget. Standing in the entryway of the church where the edict of Torda, the first declaration of religious tolerance was issued by King John Sigismund, the only Unitarian king of Transylvania in 1568. Seeing the boulder that Francis David stood upon in the middle of the city of Kholishvar and delivered an impassioned speech that inspired the entire city to become Unitarian at that moment. Singing Spirit of Life in the Chapel at the Citadel at Deva, where Francis David died after being imprisoned for heresy and feeling connected to almost 500 years of our Unitarian history. Hearing the word welcome in Hungarian, knowing that it means God brought you. Standing in a circle before we left Najoyta, looking into the eyes of each person from the village, hugging each one and saying, thank you, kusinam, as they circled around us. Watching them wave goodbye as the bus drove out of the village. All of this, all of this and more. Our readings today are in honor of our friends in Transylvania whose Unitarian faith is based in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures. These two stories very familiar in their worship and common life, the Good Samaritan and Abraham welcoming the strangers. These contain messages that frame who they are and how they live in this world. Eight years ago when Levinta and Yutka visited us, Levinta delivered a sermon here based on the parable of the Good Samaritan. In that sermon, he said, this parable sums up the essence of what we call Christianity, the unconditional and absolute love of God and humanity. It asks us, who is your neighbor? From the point of view of the Samaritan, the neighbor was the unknown Jewish man he met on the road. So a neighbor is anyone you meet, anyone brought into your life. Anyone brought into your life whose condition waits for your reaction. The parable may sound very simple. Why couldn't we do that? There's nothing complicated about it. Yes, it's simple if you do one thing except the other person, just as he or she is. Being a neighbor, Levinta said, means being able to accept others the way they are with their different languages, culture, faith traditions. It reminds us that the most important commandment is love. In Transylvania, we say God is eternal and endless love. How can we act intolerantly toward one another when we are all children of this love? We have a great mission to transform our world into one community. This can only be done by free people working together. We cannot do this alone. We need each other. We can transform our earth and only together can we do this? Then we come to this image of Abraham at his tent. The scripture says that Abraham was sitting at the entrance of his tent. The Midrash, those ancient rabbinical commentaries on the scriptures, they add that Abraham was sitting there because he was looking for strangers to welcome into his home. According to the Midrash, Abraham had the four sides of his tent open to the four winds of the earth, north, south, east, and west, so that guests could enter his home from any direction. Is this not a beautiful and inspiring picture of hospitality? This open tent policy is what you would find if you were to travel to Najoyta. The culture is one of interdependence, the knowledge that no one can do it alone, that we don't have to, that what is needed in this world to survive are open doors, welcoming tables, and open hearts. The people of Najoyta have been on my mind as I've been working with our sanctuary ministry team. On June 4th at the parish meeting, we will be asking you to consider an open tent policy to a person who is in immediate danger of deportation, possibly opening our physical space to someone as sanctuary. This is an act of hospitality, an act of love for the good of all, and yes, it is an act of political resistance. I think of the suffering our family of faith lived with for 40 years, the fear, the hatred, the acts of violence, the suspicion, the torture of being ripped away from those you love. I think of them and I try not to weep. They waited for us and we did not come. Yet when we did, the miraculous happened and lives were changed. We have an opportunity here and now to stand up and say, no, no, we will not be ruled by fear, by hate. We will be ruled by love. There are people who are waiting for us, who are asking for our help. Will we come? Will we stand by the marginalized and the oppressed, the vulnerable and very afraid? Will we open the sides of our tent to the four winds of the earth? The hospitality I experienced in Najweta is hospitality that makes room in ourselves for the new and the strange and the other, that stretches our boundaries to include a larger picture with all its ambiguity, its contradictions and its loose ends. Rabbi Goldstein, who is a rabbi in New York City, says that we live in an era of disturbing violence, of terror and alienation. We are living during a dark period and its evolution is uncertain and unsettling. Our own spiritual heritage offers correctives, pathways that allow us to regain the anchors of community we so deeply crave. One of the basic rules of tribal life is that the motivation for our behavior is grounded not in what we want to do, but in what we must do. Abraham's tent was exposed to every direction. It was welcoming, but it made him vulnerable. That is precisely the point. It is only through vulnerability that genuine community can emerge. That commitment and compassion become intertwined and inseparable. Both require a risk on our part. Both necessitate that we make a leap of faith, a leap for humanity. We know we are asking you to take a leap with the motion to become an official sanctuary congregation, joining together with 25 other congregations in Dane County who are committed to being involved in this work in some way. There's ambiguity in this process. There are questions that we will not be able to answer until someone is physically in sanctuary here in Dane County. What we are asking you to commit to is the inherent worth and dignity of every person, a world of justice for all people and a commitment to stand with others of all faith in solidarity with the most vulnerable among us. This is the allure of Transylvania, I think, but it happens around the world and it can happen here as well. It can happen here at First Unitarian Society. Remember the tent of Abraham, open to every direction, open to every stranger, radical hospitality, a pathway to regain the anchors of community we so deeply crave, each and all of us around this precious world of ours, even half a world away, over that hill, past the school and the store, the parsonage, the fortress church, the people, Ishtian Aljun, blessings everywhere. So from your partner, 6,000 miles away, who welcome you anytime with open arms and open hearts, I leave you with this. Where there is faith, there is love. Where there is love, there is peace. Where there is peace, there is blessing. Where there is blessing, there is God. Where there is God, there, there is no need. And I now invite you into the giving and receiving of this morning's offering. Our offering in its entirety is shared with our partner church in Najoyta. This money supports scholarships for our high school students who attend a boarding school about 45 miles away. It also assists the church's music program. We assist them financially each year out of a place of gratitude and deep connection with those who have kept our faith alive for over 400 years. And we thank you for your generosity. Two items to note. If you are interested in seeing photos from that summer trip, they will be playing on the big screen right after the postlude. There is a partner church table. If you have any questions about our partner church or the program itself, it's right outside the doors. Please stop by and talk to Pete and Margie. And if you have questions about sanctuary, there is a question and answer session immediately following the 11 o'clock service from 12.30 to 1.30 today. And we invite you to come with your questions. We had no cares of the congregation entered in the book this morning, so we are going to move right into our closing hymn and invite you to join in body or spirit to sing together number 112. Please be seated. Now as we prepare to leave this place, I invite you to take one of these flowers which we'll be waiting for you as you exit the auditorium today. If by chance you did not bring a flower, take one anyway. For here we believe in abundance and the importance in knowing how to receive. Take a different one than the flower you brought. Take a flower as a symbol of gratitude for the beauty we did not create, of gratitude for the blessings we do not deserve, of gratitude for joys which come when unexpected. Enter into the communion of flowers. Enter with joyful hearts. Enter with reverent thoughts. It has taken long months beneath cold ground for these flowers to prepare their blooming. It has taken each of us long times of growth through sorrow and joy to prepare for our living now. The blooming season is short. The flowers stay only a brief time. We are travelers upon the earth, travelers through all two brief lifetimes. Therefore let our moments be bountiful. Let us rejoice in our unique colors. Let us celebrate together in love that as we travel away, we take with us the memory of golden hours together here among the flowers. May these flowers ever speak to us of wonders and glories yet to be, of hopes fulfilled if we remember to tend our gardens and our homes with patience and wisdom and love. Let us lead... Ha ha ha! That's right. Let us lead with these brief words from Anna Quinn. Like a prairie whose health depends on its diversity of life forms, our free congregations prosper when they permit a diversity of perspectives, when they are fertilized by curiosity, when they are watered by mutual respect and honor. Touched by the spark of all that is holy, let us go now in peace resolved to act upon these our most cherished values. Dan?