 I'm not sure if it was. Yeah. Oh my God, that was cool. Yeah. I feel like I'm the one. Oh, that's it. That's all right. That's all right. I'm all hyping up. That's some kind of joke that I'm knowing. That stupid act comes down. That's what I'm trying to do. That's what I'm being. That's what it takes to grow. Thank you. Thank you. Please join in a moment of centering silence so we can be fully present with each other this morning. Okay, enough silence. Now let's get musically present with each other by turning to the words for our in-gathering hymn, which you'll find inside your order of service. And good morning, everybody. Welcome to a wonderful Earth Day weekend service 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 it's a special place. And if you'd like to learn more about our special buildings, we usually offer a guided tour after every service. Just gather over here by the windows after the service and we'll take care of you. If there is no tour guide, don't despair, because we'll be happy to talk with you and answer any questions during the fellowship hour right after the service. This would be a great time to silence those pesky electronic devices that you absolutely will not need for the next hour. That goes for those of you watching at home because we can hear your ringtones. So while you're taking care of that, let me remind you that if you're accompanied by a youngster this morning and you think that your young companion would rather experience the service from a more private space, we offer a couple options for you, including our child haven in the back corner of the auditorium and some comfortable seating in the commons just outside the doorway from which you can see and hear the service. One of the reasons we can hear and see the service is that it is brought to us by a wonderful group of volunteers who deserve our gratitude, our appreciation, a hug, a high five, or maybe even put them in your will. So I'm talking about these volunteers whose help we appreciate this morning, Mark Schultz on the sound system, Tom Hiney and Penny Mori who welcomed us and greeted us this morning, and Smiley who is serving as our lay minister. Our ushers today include Wally Brinkman, Doug Hill, and Carol Deppers. The coffee and hospitality are being hosted by Chip Quadi and Jean Hills, and Hannah Pinkerton is making sure that the greenery up here is properly watered. Only one announcement, and it concerns the number of days until Cabaret, that number is 19, because on Friday, May 12, this entire place will be turned into one Irish party. We'll have all kinds of great music, Irish music, great food, maybe not Irish, but great food, beverages, some of which I'm sure will be Irish in nature, a silent and live auction, and a lot of fun for the whole family. Cabaret is one of the more exciting and enjoyable events on the FUS social calendar. In fact, my kids when they were younger used to call this place the Cabaret Church. So come see what that's all about, have a lot of fun, and I think you'll see why Cabaret gives many of us a sense of belonging to First Unitarian Society. You can save a little bit of money by buying your tickets in advance. Just go to the FUS website and you can get all of that information. So before I invite you to sit back and enjoy today's service, let me just say, oh, Cabaret is coming. It'll be here real soon, 19 days. 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 for you and me and we'll raise a lot of money for First Society. Inside, inside my old stones you tell my story. His hand steals me from you, the cradle, the craze of these foes. It's not my mean, help me help me see dreams on their machines and on the sea. Wherever you are, do you 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, to proclaim the memory of those who have taken their leave, to 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 now in body or spirit, joining together in the words of affirmation as we light the chalice, 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 will take a moment now to greet those around you. Please be seated. And I invite anyone who'd like to come up front for the story to come on up. Oh sir, a new school. You have? Yeah, you guys have. You've moved far haven't you? Sometimes it's hard. And our story today is about a girl named Vivian who moved to a new house and a new school. But the cool thing is that her new town is right on the ocean in South Carolina. And so there are gonna be pictures from our book today up on the screen. So if you make sure you can see them. You can't see them? Try that way. Or try over here closer to me. Either way. So 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 was not so sure. The next day her teacher, Mr. J, said welcome Vivian. You are just in time for the fun. We are looking for a problem to solve. So after school Vivian rode her bike all over this new town looking for a problem and mostly she just got lost. Now 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, dogs are really good diggers aren't they? The dogs are really good diggers. I know that much. You don't? You could have one of mine totally. You could have two of mine actually. The dogs did bigger and bigger. Lucy? You have a cat named Lucy? I have a mom named Lucy. That's pretty cool. Although I don't call her that. She'd be really mad. So the dogs were digging and digging and digging and the man was raining down all around Vivian and a man walked by and he said well that looks like a lot of fun but make sure you fill in those holes. It's nesting season. And Vivian said what is nesting season? And a voice behind her said it's because of the babies. Now look at the pictures. Do you have any clue what kind of babies might they be talking about? Look at that sign. Turtle babies. And the girl said baby sea turtles need a clear path to the sea. Holes and sand castles could get in their way. Vivian said I didn't know we had sea turtles here. We do Clementine said and sometimes they need our help. So later that night Vivian and her mom went down to the beach. Mr. J had told them to use their eyes to search for a problem and as darkness fell all these lights coming on along the beach. They were the lights in the... In the what? What do you see in the picture there? They were this right basil. They were the lights and all the houses were coming on and Vivian said that's it. That's the problem. Why? Asked her mom. Why would the lights in the houses be a problem? Yeah. You guys are exactly right. Smartest kids around those UU kids. It's the moon. The turtles need to follow the moon and if there's lights from a city they can get turned around and instead of going to the ocean they could end up in the city which we don't want them going that way, right? That they follow the strongest light they can see. But Vivian's heart sank when she looked at all the houses. There's so many. How can we ask all of these people to turn off their lights? And her mom said it's tricky because these houses are vacation homes so the people change every couple of days. Clearly Vivian needed help and she knew where she could go to get it. So on Monday Clementine and Vivian were the first ones to raise their hands. They told the class what they learned and what they knew about the sea turtles. The eggs are starting to hatch. She said to save the hatchlings we need the whole class. Well really we need the whole town to help. And that's how lights out for loggerheads began. The classroom became the loggerhead lab. They gathered information. They read books. They visited an aquarium and a sea turtle hospital. They brainstormed solutions and they got to work. They made posters and delivered them all over town. They wrote fact sheets to hang in the beach homes and to pay for the printing and the flyers. They had bake sales. They shot man donated a whole pan of his famous granola. Everybody wanted to help. The editor put Vivian's article in the newspaper. The printer gave them a discount. Two others learned how to spread the word on the internet. Mr. J helped write a press release and Vivian went on television as the class spokesperson. They invited volunteers from South Carolina United Turtle enthusiasts known as Scoot to their town meeting. And when the big night of the meeting arrived the room was packed. The room was buzzing with ideas. They talked about how to make the beach great for turtles. Marking nests. Running nightly patrols. What to do if the hatchlings got in trouble. And at the end they decided to form their own volunteer group. People cheered. And Mr. J said I'm so proud of all of you. It was the best night ever until the last night of summer Vivian and her mother and her class and all their parents went on turtle patrol. Everyone smiled as one by one. All the lights on the beach went out. They had done it. And suddenly a movement in the sand caught their eye. Over here Vivian whispered they crept closer. The moon was shining on the waves. Then they saw one. And then two. And then a wee. And then so many hatchlings. Tiny turtles no more than two inches burst from the nest. Would they know where to go? They were off scurrying over the sand and right into the ocean. So Vivian and her friends stood together smiling and silent with wonder. And then just like the turtles they followed the moon home. Thanks Basil. I got applause. Hey so I love this story. One because I love turtles but also because it's a story of an elementary school class that made a huge difference. And it shows us the power of people coming together and working together and they made change. We are going to rise and body your spirit and sing you out to your classes with him 163. Please be seated. Our first reading from Mark Nepo. In the winter I met a man in South Africa and 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 peace of our deepest joys we are each other. I have been finding it in every path in every way in how we live off the breath of plants and how plants live off our exhalations. I find it in Martin Buber's 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 poem on hope 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'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 any more than by wishing but stop dithering the young ask the old to 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 mountains polluted the mountains overturned hope then to belong to your place by your own knowledge of what it is that no other place is 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 for 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 fisherman 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 by 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 heard a radio speak publicly what cannot be taught or learned in public listen privately silently to the voices that rise up from the pages of books and from your own heart be still and listen to the voices that belong to the stream banks and the trees and the 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 by 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 to care toward your place and you one of those moments where you want to go go in peace the music has been a gift this morning thank you and what a joy to have Peter Mayer here I hope you're feeling the love Peter many years ago when I was an intern in Philadelphia Dan and I were fortunate to be able to live with his parents and one of the first things I noticed when we moved in was the appearance of maps seemingly everywhere they were large and framed and 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 and 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 this 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 can 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 sustained them and their ancestors for generations they'd find relatively unmarked roots and discover new markers to guide them and to guide those who'd 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 this story from 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 up the wind and gulls winged furiously over the car squawking the passenger door opened bedroom slippers on long thin 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 door 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 the trunk for a loaf of bread pulled out as much as she could hold and 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 sidled closer not wanting to scare the birds or intrude on the woman but I wanted 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 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 of another loaf I would have liked to have eaten it myself I was that hungry for what the old woman offered not just the bread but her closeness to the birds but I tore those pieces and I threw them and I slowly backed away there stood the woman her face lifted to the birds her arms open wide 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 is one true fact 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 at the world and at our place in it 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 in Maslow's hierarchy right after food and shelter comes 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 one another 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 can belong in this world of separation and alienation we want to know and be known Mark Nepo 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 a deep longing that brought us here Susan Richie 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 forebear's 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 if you've been here 50 years or if 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 a belonging to all life in our western tradition we've held a hierarchy of beings with humans at the very top but in native ways of knowing humans are referred to as the younger brothers of creation it can be said that we humans 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 the universe feeling a call to connect and to care what happens if we extend our belonging marker to a belonging to all who share this life with us then instead of telling our stories of separation or living in exile from ourselves or each other we live out of this knowing and being known this recognition of a belonging to all life and from this place with deep reverence and gratitude we come to hope Wendell Berry said in our reading it is hard to have hope it is harder as you grow old for hope must not depend on feeling good hope is harder when it cannot come by prediction any more 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 hope because hope isn't just about reasons it is 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 says that hope is a radical imagining a courageous affirmation of what you value a vision that might not be seen by the eye but rather 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 happen and then do our bit to make it more likely that's what active hope is all about our new markers have led us from a place of wonder to a knowledge of our belonging to a sense of hope and now to our last stop which is perhaps where we find the antidote to despair in our times and the last stop is integrity here we find the way to move forward acting with integrity this is what I have been relearning in my journey through fourth grade math it hasn't been pretty I have forgotten so much nobody carries the one anymore an integer I had to look it up an integer he said mommy what's an integer I said I have no idea an integer is a whole number from integretatum 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 humanities pitiful confusions or drown in despair when the day is darken kathleen dean moore who gave us the wonderbread story says that these 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 they act lovingly toward the world because they love it don't ask will my axe save the world or another person maybe they will maybe they won't rather ask yourself are my axe consistent with what I most deeply believe is right and good am I living from a place that is really rooted and 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 working for its healing even if it breaks your heart to do so to do this work out of a recognition that we belong to all whether the map markers merge and become transformed into something else entirely because when you have wonder belonging hope and integrity they combine to 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 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 and different way we will not be the last we understand that we are part of a global movement that will never end but that will struggle on generation after generation humanity finds a way to live in peace and harmony with each other and the earth or 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 one another 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 each other in our struggles and loss may we find comfort and hope in our times of celebration may we be grateful may wisdom be ours as we navigate the transitions and challenges of this life today we hold in our heart Sparrow Sentie who is at Capital Lakes for rehabilitation and we send her our strength and our love we hold Adam Dropshow brother of Rachel Dropshow and his family who are unexpectedly but very excitedly expecting their second child Roz Woodward who had surgery on Friday and is recuperating extremely well in the hospital for others for continued healing and strength also Kurt Stegi who's returned home after his surgery and is growing stronger each day we pray that it continues we hold Fran Bicknell in our hearts and 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 loss of Mark Hoover Mark's memorial service will be held here in this room Saturday the 29th at 11am may Kathleen and their family find peace and healing in the days to come may we be grateful today and always for this community that holds us close for the miracle of life we share 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 it is an outreach offering shared with native energy you can find out more about it in your order of service we thank you for your generosity oh man, what you know is all the world is one all the world is one this day you raise up your own flag with the other grandfums there when suddenly you're clear you're sitting under the tree oh, a small winter breeze looking out at the sea and we stand upon the serenade and the air it's written in your blood what I'm trying to say with your hearts in your veins and when we stand upon the serenade and the sun there are things going down that just go round and round these 25 people have chosen to join their journey with ours becoming a member of this congregation is a fairly straightforward proposition one generally attends a series of orientation classes 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 our world the humanitarian universalist movement will help make our community and the planet a more peaceful and compassionate place we make this commitment because we believe in the transformative power of community 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 in our 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 your own continuing journey again welcome to membership in First Unitarian Society and now Maureen Muldoon is going to read the names of those that we know are here with us this morning when you come forward, when she calls your name, please remember to bring the insert from the order of service Adam Simcock, Elizabeth Simcock James Knudsen, Patricia Knudsen Teresa Burgesson-Gallon Mary Burgesson-Gallon and Lisa Alvender and if there's anyone else we haven't called please come up 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 living reverent and compassionate lives do you accept these people into this community as companions on 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 so we're going to read the bond of union right now we the members of First Unitarian Society of Madison desiring a religious organization the Spirit of Jesus of Nazareth which I'll make the integrity of life its first name and lead thought free associate ourselves together and accept from our membership those of whatever theological opinion who wish to unite with us in the promotion of truth righteousness reverence and charity and we now offer the right hand of fellowship to our new members accustomed dating back to Puritan times the hand of fellowship is a sign of acceptance and equality and if you will join me in welcoming our new members and as we do that if you will rise in body or spirit for our closing hymn number 1064 go forth go forth because we are always going forth from somewhere going from our homes our childhoods 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 carry with you as you go the love and laughter 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 set off to do been there so long that place too 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 go forth leave behind the comfort and community of one place 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 set off to do and when you have been away long enough far enough done what you