 Please join me in a few moments of centering silence. And now please join me for our in-gathering hymn, the words for which are printed in your order of service. Studentarian 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 Nastasha Ostrom, and on behalf of this 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. Newcomers are encouraged to stay for our fellowship hour after the service and to visit the library, which is directly across from the center doors of this auditorium. Bring your drinks and your questions. Members of our staff and lay ministry will be on hand to welcome you. You may also look for persons holding teal stoneware coffee mugs. These are FUS members knowledgeable about our faith community who would love to visit with you. Experienced guides are generally available to give a building tour after each service, so if you would like to learn more about this sustainably designed addition to our national landmark meeting house, please meet near the large glass window over on the left side of the auditorium immediately after the service. We welcome children to stay for the duration of the service. However, because it can be sometimes difficult to hear in this lively acoustical environment, our child haven and the commons are excellent places to retire if a child needs a place to move around. The service can still be seen and heard from those areas. And speaking of noise, this is a good time to turn off all electronic noise making devices that might cause a disturbance during the hour. I'd now like to acknowledge those individuals who help make our services run smoothly. Our sound operator today is Steve. Our lay minister today is Anne Smiley. Our greeter is Elizabeth Barrett. Our usher's today are Anne Smiley, Gail Bliss, Judy Troyer, Morris Waxler. Our hospitality is offered today by Gene Hills. And our flowers today are from Mary Savage. Please note the announcements in the red floors insert to your order of service, which describe upcoming events here at the society and provide more information about today's activities. And we do have a special announcement today. Next weekend, Mother's Day weekend, May 9th and 10th, peace polls will once again be placed and decorated along University Bay Drive before and after the services. If you would like to participate in this family friendly event, please sign up. There will be someone with a sign up sheet in the commons after the service or you can contact Roz Woodward who needs to put enough polls in for everyone to be able to decorate. For the details are in the red floors in your order of service. And now we have a special announcement from Rene, so I'm going to turn it over to her. I'm one of the FUS Children's Religious Education teachers and I'd like to encourage all of you or some of you to join me. We have one of the largest UU children's education programs in the country, teaching over 500 kids between preschool age to ninth graders every year. This cannot be done obviously without the commitment and community of parents and other FUS members. As you might guess, I am one of those other FUS members. Seven years ago, when I first attended a UU service, never having gone to such a thing in the past, that's the same year that I also signed the first Unitarian Society book and taught my first UU class. So thinking that really what did I know about being a UU, I decided I'm gonna start teaching preschoolers. I have to know more than them. Since then I've taught kindergarteners and first graders and now I'm teaching second and third graders. By teaching, I've made lasting friendships with young UU families, something that probably wouldn't have fallen into my life had I not been a teacher. I've gotten relationships with friends who are co-teachers and gotten to know many of the staff at our society. Through our religious education program, children and youth are empowered to become free thinking individuals. They know and respect themselves and others. They come to appreciate and care for the interdependent nature of all our existence and informed decisions regarding their spiritual path. I have expanded my own UU understanding through services and through being a teacher. Next fall I'm moving all the way up to teach the fourth and fifth graders. I know. For me the most important part and benefit of being an RE teacher is knowing that I am contributing not only to this wonderful awesome community but also through to society by fostering that kind of education in our young people. Not to mention it's fun. Also it's not very difficult nor is it very time consuming. The RE curriculum is very structured and the classroom supplies are all provided. You really kind of can follow along with this established curriculum. However, there is room for flexibility. Like today when the nine o'clock class I was teaching we're a little rang-bunctious and the weather is awesome. We ended the class a bit early and had some free time on the playground. The mantra of our children's RE program is community trumps curriculum. Can always keep that in mind. Leslie and Kelly are ever so helpful and supportive so if there's issues or concerns or problems they're always right there to help you. And the teaching and you certainly don't need teaching experience. Typically you're part of a four person teaching team so hence you only co-teach about two times a month and it's only during the academic school year. For more information please visit Kelly. She's at the far end of the atrium after the service. So ministering to youth and children in this community has certainly enriched my life and I'd encourage you all to try it. It could enrich yours also. Thank you. Again, welcome. We hope today's service will stimulate your mind, touch your heart and stir your spirit. To this place, whoever you are, wanderer, worshipper, lover of learning, all seekers after what is true. All who seek a community of compassion and diversity. Come, come to this place whoever you are. Though you've broken your vows a thousand times and you're too busy and you don't have the time. Come, come to this place whoever you are. Lovers of wisdom, lovers of humanity, lovers of beauty. Come to this place where a love we do not make surrounds us and lifts us and nurtures us. Come, come to this place whoever you are. Ours is not a community of despair, but of hope. Not a place of judging, but of thanksgiving. Not a place of certainty, but of searching. Come, come to this place whoever you are. Come yet again. Come. And if you will rise now in body or spirit and join together in our affirmation that's printed in your order of service. As frozen earth holds the determined seed, this sacred space holds our weariness and worry, our laughter and our celebration. Let us bring seed and soul into the light of thought, the warmth of community and the hope of love. And before we join together in song, if you'll take a moment to turn and greet your neighbor. Closer for the story today. Miss Ellie. Hello, Rosie. Hey, and hi everybody. Well, I've got something to show you here. Light bulb? Yeah, what's this? Light bulb. A light bulb. Are you very impressed by my light bulb? No. You're not? You don't think it's, okay, this one doesn't impress you. How about this one? No. No? Okay, I'm pulling out all the stops here. How about this one? Oh, I got a woe. I got a woe for my weird rectangular light bulb. Things you find in Tom's office. It's basically what this whole basket is. All right, you all are not very impressed by my light bulb, but in 1879, when Thomas Edison first showed his new electric bulb to people, what do you think they said? Wow. Nice job. It's like you were there. You're right. They said, whoa, because they'd never seen anything like it before. The light bulb glowed. It was quiet. It was steady. It didn't flicker like a candle. It didn't smell like smelly oil. It wasn't really any worry of fire like you have with a candle. People called Edison a wizard because they thought the fact that you could flip a switch and make a bulb glow was mad. And people wanted that kind of magic in their own homes, but there was a problem. Mr. Edison's light bulb would work the first time you turned it on. The second time you turned it on. The third time you turned it on. Uh-oh, because it only lasted about 40 hours, which is not a very long time. So people would flip it on, flip it off, flip it on, flip it off, and then it would burn out. And they'd have to buy another one. So they'd go get another one and they'd do the same thing on, off, on, off, on, off. And it would burn out. So they'd have to get another one and another one and another one and light bulbs were expensive. And so they said, forget it. We're not gonna have this electric light. We're going back to our drippy candle wax and our stinky oil because these bulbs are just never gonna work right. But there was a man named Louis Latimer. Have you ever heard of Louis Latimer? It's Latimer. Louis Latimer didn't give up on the idea of an electric light bulb. He decided that it was gonna be his job to make a longer lasting bulb, one that people could actually afford. And it wouldn't be easy. He knew that because a lot of people, scientists and engineers and inventors had tried and tried and tried and nobody could do it. So it would have been really easy for Louis Latimer to say, forget it, it's not possible. Louis Latimer didn't have much of an education. He wasn't a scientist or a chemist or an engineer. He'd hardly gone to school at all. His parents, before he was born, were slaves in Virginia and they escaped to Boston in the North so that Louis and his brothers and his sister could be born free. And they went to school, but they were very poor. So when Louis was 10, he had to stop going to school to get a job. How old are you, Lily? 12. Get a job. Where's Elizabeth? I think we should put this one to work. So when he was 10, two years younger than Lily, he had to quit school and get a job. But Louis Latimer was smart. He was very smart. When he was a teenager, he learned how to make technical drawings of inventions. He helped Alexander Graham Bell draw the first diagrams of the telephone. So he liked to do experiments. He liked to invent things. So even though he didn't have much of a formal education, he was a scientist and an inventor and he didn't give up on the possibility of what he knew he could do. So he decided he was gonna make a longer-lasting light bulb and he did. He used his curiosity and his knowledge and his vision and he made this thing called a carbon filament. And if you've ever seen a clear light bulb, this one is cloudy so you can't see it. But there's that curly piece in there that's called a carbon filament. He made one that was baked in a certain way that it lasted hundreds of hours. So now your light bulb would last a month or a few months instead of just a few days. So now everybody wanted the magic electric bulb. So Louis traveled to Montreal and Philadelphia and New York and London to help people put electricity in their cities and in their homes. And when he came back from London, the one and only Thomas Edison asked Louis if he would work with him and together they created many more magical things. Now electricity wasn't the only kind of light that Louis helped to create. He loved learning new things and he wanted to share his learning. He helped people by sharing the light of truth. He helped people who were hungry and people who were poor like his family had once been. He knew that helping others was a way of sharing our light. He wrote a poem that said, to love while we live and give aid to each other is the sunshine of life that turns night into day. In 1908, Louis Latimer helped start the Unitarian Church in Flushing, New York. People are still going to that church 107 years later. And that Unitarian Universalist community just like this one gives a long and lasting light. Louis Latimer would be very pleased. Thank you all for listening to my story of Louis and the light bulb. We are gonna rise in body and spirit and sing you out to classes for a reason. It might be a mission like he sent Benjamin Franklin to discover electricity or it might be someone sent to help a small boy who cannot get his prize out of a gumball machine that needs pounding. Whoever we are, we've come to walk the face of the earth for a reason. We all do things that people consider bad or good. Whatever quality they have, they still have a place in the circle that weaves around lessons. There will never be a time when there won't be falsehood in the world. We can expect it in days to come. But no matter how bad things are, they are still part of everyday life. And once they happen, you can't do anything about them. Then again, maybe they teach us things. A house burned down teaches us to be grateful for a roof. Violations of any kind teach us to be more respectful of things. We've all come here for a reason. Whatever our purpose is, we've got to free it. My prayer for the future is that we make better use of our time together on this earth as united human beings. And these thoughts from Ray Sakura. At a recent conference, I asked a thousand people the following questions. If you have only 24 hours left to live, where will you spend it? How will you spend it? And who, if anyone, will you have with you? When I read their answers on small slips of paper, not one person said, I will watch TV. I will sit in front of the computer. I will sit in traffic for hours in my car. I will fight with those who don't see things my way. I will go shopping. I will figure out how to make more money. Not one said, I will stay indoors. I'll just go to sleep. I will worry about my hair and my weight. I will not be good to myself and those around me. No one said any of those things. Instead, the thousands slips of paper spoke of loving family, loving friends, being in the most beautiful places on earth, making peace with all living beings and those we have needlessly harmed. Waking up and spreading as much peace and laughter, touch and honesty as possible in those last hours. I laughed and cried and smiled as I read the answers. I realized then we must live as if this were our last 24 hours, choosing the most honest and loving way at every moment. Perhaps the way to do this is to live into the golden rule. Do unto all living beings as you would have done unto you. Do not do unto other living beings that which you would not want done unto you. With this choice of loving and caring, our 24 hours will repeat itself day after day, week after week, year after year, decade after decade. For the gift of the absolutely perfect music this morning, and you all just wait for the postlude, trust me, a man was traveling through the mountains and he suddenly found himself being chased by a huge, hungry tiger. He ran and ran until he came to the edge of a cliff. There, with nowhere else to go, he caught hold of a thick vine and swung himself over the edge. Above him, the tiger growled. Below him, he heard a sound and looked down to see another tiger waiting for him at the bottom. Two mice scrambled out from the cliffside and began to gnaw at the vine. The traveler could see they were quickly eating through it. Then in front of him on the cliffside, a delicious smell caught his attention. A luscious, wild strawberry. Holding onto the vine with one hand, he reached out and picked the berry with the other. And it was delicious. This ancient parable does not tell us what happened to that poor man. But it does make us think of times in our own lives when we feel like we are running from tigers, whether emotional or physical, tigers that have left us feeling like we are barely hanging on to a thin vine that is slowly being eaten. Now, this parable came to mind when I met with Sandy Eskrich, who purchased these reflections at last year's cabaret auction. Sandy said that when she was bidding on the reflections, the one idea she had in mind was how do you come to an attitude of hope when there is so much discouragement in the world? Especially if you have young people in your lives and you're concerned about what kind of mess they are inheriting. Whether it's racism, poverty, climate change, how can we find ways in the midst of all of this to go about our days with a hopeful orientation toward life? It is a fascinating and extremely relevant question. It resonated with me because I deeply understand where the questions are coming from. The other night I turned on the news for the first time in a very long time, and this is what I saw. I saw hopelessness. I saw oppression. I saw pain. I saw internalized oppression. I saw despair. I saw anger. I saw poverty. I saw hunger. And I saw fear. When I turned the television off 10 minutes later, I was discouraged. I was grieving, and I was hopeless. If I were to believe all that I saw on those news programs, I could not envision any possibilities for the future. Any way in which we could come out of this okay. It made me think of this question that Joan Halifax asked many years ago. How do we welcome loss, despair, pain, while at the same time maintaining the courage to let go so that the broken heart breaks open to the wider world? Attitude toward hope impacts how we take in the world. It impacts all parts of our lives. Hope determines whether we are open to the possibilities and how engaged we are with what really matters. Albert Einstein said that the most important decision we make is whether we believe we are in a friendly or hostile universe. Do you believe this world is a friendly place? This is not to say we turn away from the cruelty or the injustice in the world to see life only with a rosy glow. But do you believe that there is a larger sense of benevolence, kindness, basic goodness in life, in your fellow human beings and in this world we share? How you respond to that question determines in large part your sense of hopefulness. If the world is only seen as a cruel and dangerous place, then there is no hope, no vision, no sense of possibility. Hope matters. Researchers tell us that an attitude of hopefulness is a key factor in our experience of happiness. It buffers us from stress, anxiety, difficult events, brings more well-being into our lives. Our immune systems are strengthened, our endorphins are increased, so our physical pain is less. We laugh and smile more. We heal quicker from injury. Hopelessness, on the other hand, is a key predictor of suicide along with isolation. The research says we literally cannot live without hope. Yet we know we're not wired this way. We're wired as the neuroscientist Rick Hansen tells us to be velcro for the bad and Teflon for the good. It's why the media always starts out with the riots and the stabbings and the shootings and the stories that bring fear and dread because our brains are wired to pick those stories up and run with them over and over again. It's an evolutionary survival mechanism we need to look out for the things that can harm us so that we can survive. We are not wired in times of stress or even in the daily moments of calm to look for and notice that perfect, wild strawberry hanging within our reach. We focus on the tigers, the warnings, the danger. So what if the headlines that you saw this morning looks like this? Anti-corruption stance of Nigeria's president-elect causes regional ripple effect of hope for the continent and launches a new public debate in the region. Or this one, my personal favorite. Hondis hydrogen-powered SUV to run on sewage in South Carolina. The poo car, as it has been nicknamed, is to demonstrate the feasibility of locally produced hydrogen from renewable sources at a self-powered facility. Or this one, U.S. solar firms invest to power more than 200,000 homes in rural Kenya with solar-powered micro grids. The project will address some urgent need in a country where just 23% has access to electricity. Or this one. Scientists in China show organic farming can store more carbon than it emits in readily available and imminently affordable compost. It is agriculture that the United Nations has been advocating for a long time and it's happening. Or this last one. Banana fiber gives Uganda's landmine victims new life. Bananas, not just for eating anymore, are giving a new lease on life to the Kasis landmine survivors. A cooperative association that's creating income and livelihood by turning the fiber into a whole range of products from household goods and handcrafts to bags and textiles. Fiber is viable, cost-free, and abundant in Uganda. These are, in fact, real headlines. I didn't make them up, not even the one about the poo car. These are true happenings unfolding in our world today. Along with all the negative, with the malice and the meanness, there is good, there is reason for hope. So how do we come to an attitude of hope? Well, step one, I think, is to look for the good. We need to be aware of the realities of our world and not just allow our brains to see only the pain and the unkindness. We also need to take in the good as much as five times more good than bad to make it work. Look for the good. Look for the ones spreading the good, working for good, working to create a world of peace. Look for them and hope. Tara Brock, teacher and author, has this fascinating way to look at hope. She compares two different kinds, what she calls small hope versus holy hope. Small hope is born out of a grasping fear that something needs to happen in a certain way in order for me to be happy and safe. This kind of hope is always bound to fear, a fear that this precise thing is not going to happen. It is a fixated hope, fixated on only one thing with no other possibilities allowed. It is magical, fantasizing, not recognizing realities or limitations. This is not the hope we are talking about. Rather, we're talking about what she calls holy hope. This hope allows us to engage in life without being hooked to specific outcomes. This hope holds within it three things, vision, trust, and a dedication of energy. This is the hope that Vahklav Havel spoke of when he said, hope is a state of mind, not of the world. Hope in this deep and powerful sense is not the same as a joy that things are going well or a willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense regardless of how it turns out. This is a liberating hope, giving you the power to work for what you believe in regardless of the outcome, because you believe in your heart of hearts, you know it is right. It comes out of your vision for the world, your vision of what is possible. The Hebrew prophet said that without vision, a people perish. What is your vision? What does your heart long for? What do you care about? What really matters to you? Whether it is healing or justice or peace, your vision can bring hope. In this view, there are different pathways to reach your vision and if one way doesn't work, you will try another because it isn't the method that you truly care about, but the healing or the peace or the justice that you know is possible. This work moves on with trust, trusting in ourselves, in our own inner wisdom and goodness to help guide us. Thoreau said, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there and I will expect wonders. Trust the seed that is within you and then dedicate your energy to the vision. Hope is not passive. It is engaged in a process. What are the pathways that will serve your vision? You have to take a step to activate your hope, stepping into the next best thing that you can do. Barbara King-Solver said, the very least you can do in life is figure out what you hope for and the most you can do is live inside that hope not admire it from a distance, but live right in it under its roof. So I want to share with you these words from the minister of the First Unitarian Church of Baltimore because I believe that they are a shining example of hope that comes from vision, trust and dedication. My dear friends, we must not imagine that what is happening in Baltimore will be over for a very long time. There are cries for peace in our city and from outside our city, which imagine that stopping the violent spree of angry and organized youth and getting back to normal is desired. I am not sure that this is desired and I know that it's not even possible. The frustration of the young people in Baltimore is the frustration of a people that have known harassment their entire lives. This generation has faced a city where the zero-tolerance policy has criminalized their childhood, criminalized growing up in East and West Baltimore, and that is not going to change even when the state of emergency is lifted. Baltimore snatched up its streets last night. We occupied our space with courage, pride and joy. To see the 300 men march walking in their organized fashion and shaking hands, calling for peace, encouraging boys and young men, this is Baltimore. Watching Baptist churches hold services on street corners, seeing Methodists chatting one-to-one with every person they could find, walking with robed Catholics who know the poor of their parish, this is Baltimore. Witnessing the gangs in their colors, claiming their territory, and encouraging youngsters to obey the curfew because they care for each other, and they don't want any excuses for additional arrests. This is Baltimore. Seeing the drum and pom-pom squad marching 60, 70 strong with a core of drummers and dozens of teenagers, mostly black, all fabulous, including many young men who identify as gay and strut in their teal-spangled body suits and shake their pom-poms with the rest of them and have the crowd cheer, show their love, shout their pride, this is Baltimore. Last night was an amazing moment, but there are so many tense moments ahead of us. There will be quite a few moments in the next month where our peace will be threatened, and so it should be. This is a generation of folk, among many generations of folk whose lives have been shaped by an oppressive culture and the particularly oppressive culture of the war on drugs. We need to be part of the remaking of this culture with accountability to the people who are marginalized and oppressed. We must work in accountable relationship that repair may happen in that generation and in our nation's soul. Of course you are welcome to come to Baltimore. My mantra every day as I walk these streets is I have come because my liberation is bound up with yours, may we work together. Much love to you all, David Carl Olson. A vision of what can be, a world healed and transformed, a trust that we have the wisdom to make it happen and the willingness to do the work. That, my friends, is a recipe for hope. Here in Madison there's much you can do. On Sunday, May 17th, at 3 p.m. in this auditorium, there will be a teach-in with the Young Gifted and Black Coalition. Young Gifted and Black is a grassroots organization speaking out against racial disparities and demanding change. Members of YGB will provide us with information so that we may understand their purposes and their actions in a historical and community context. This is an opportunity provided by and for faith communities so that we may listen, learn and ask questions. Where is your hope? What is your vision? How will you live inside it? For right now I ask you to listen. Listen with your heart, claim your vision, trust in your goodness and beauty and power. Dedicate your energy to making it true. Continue the conversations, ask questions, learn as much as you can, choose to engage. With vision, trust and dedication, we can move forward together in hope. May we be courageous enough to make it so. Amen. And I now invite you into the giving and receiving of today's offering, which you can see in your order of service. The outreach offering is shared with sales, supporting active, independent lives. You can find out more about them in the order of service and we thank you for your generosity. As a part of our services this weekend, we are welcoming all those who have officially joined First Unitarian Society in recent months. This worshiping community has a long and distinguished history and we're proud that these 28 people have chosen to join their spiritual journey with ours. Becoming a member of this congregation is on the one hand, a fairly straightforward proposition. One generally attends a series of orientation classes, signifies the intent to join, is familiar with our UU principles and our bond of union which holds 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? This congregation in the first place 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 costs 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 personal spiritual journeys. We join because we hunger to be in relationship with people who regard religion as an open-ended, ongoing quest for deeper meaning and more honest and authentic religious connection. As members, we are all responsible for strengthening this institution so that it can perform these life-affirming tasks. We agree that religion is as much public as a private affair and intensely communal as well as individual commitment. We honor our responsibility when we do the following. Make an effort to learn about our tradition, its history, its theology, its past and present concerns and efforts, its partners around the globe, its struggles and its successes in order to understand what it really means to be a Unitarian Universalist. When we make joyful and generous contributions of time, talent and treasure, trusting that when we give from the heart, we grow in spirit. Make a good faith effort to participate in the open democratic process by which this community lives and thrives. We need to become active citizens and not passive consumers of service in keeping with our tradition's long-standing commitment to congregational empowerment. This is not a casual commitment we ask people to make and that is why we take the time today to recognize and celebrate those who have accepted these responsibilities. Our hope is that membership in this community is an experience of abundance and joy and we are so pleased to welcome you to membership in First Unitarian Society. I will call your names and if you would bring your little slip of paper up with the words for the ceremony and come join us here on the carpet. Sarah Best Wilson, Chessie Chen, Terry Felton, John Ryder, Brianna Hilby, Dory Liam, Joshua Wolfolk, Mary Weatherwax, Esther Weiss, Rachel Weiss and unable to be with us but listening at home, Abby Wellemeyer and Ben Wellemeyer and our newest member, Elaine Olson. I invite you all to refer to the words printed on the insert in your order of service. And now I ask of our new members. 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? And now I ask of the congregation, 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? And now if you will please rise and body or in spirit. The members of the First Unitarian Society advance, desire a religious organization in the spirit of Jesus of Nazareth, which shall make the integrity of life its first aim and the evolved free, associate ourselves together and adapt to our membership. Those of whatever the theological communion who wish to unite with us in the promotion of truth, righteousness, reverence, and charity among all. If you will join us in welcoming our new members, we offer the hand of fellowship to our new members, accustomed dating back to Puritan times, a symbol of welcome and acceptance. And if you all will now open up your hymnals and join in singing our closing hymn, may you have the courage to sing your part. The world is too broken to be healed by only one set of hands. May you have the courage to use your gifts. May we go forth from this place, willing to sing our songs and willing to do the work to create the world we know is possible. Blessed be, go in peace and please be seated for the post loop.