 Please join in a moment of centering silence so we can be fully present with each other this morning. And if you're not, let's get musically present by turning to the words for our in-gathering hymn which you'll find printed in your order of service. Welcome to another Sunday service here at First Unitarian Society where independent thinkers gather in a safe, nurturing, and very musical environment today as we explore issues of social, spiritual, and ethical significance and try to make a difference in this world. I'm Steve Goldberg, a very proud member of this congregation, and like many of you, I am basking in the joy of one extra hour of sleep from last night. That doesn't mean that today's service will be an extra hour long. It's going to be the regular length. And I know that makes most of you feel pretty good. If this is your first visit to First Unitarian Society, I'd like to extend a special welcome to you, guests, visitors, and newcomers. I think you'll find that this is a special place. And if you'd like to learn more about our special buildings, after most of our services we offer a guided tour. Just meet over here by the windows, and if we have a tour guide today, that person will take good care of you. If we don't have a tour guide today, you're still welcome to join us for our fellowship hour out in the commons. This would be a great time if you haven't already done so to silence those pesky electronic devices that you just will not need for the next hour. Thanks for taking care of that. And speaking of taking care of things, if you are accompanied by a youngster today, 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 just outside the doorway in the commons, from which you and your young companion can see and hear the service. The reason we are able to see and hear the service is we have a great team of volunteers who are putting things together for you. And I'd like to acknowledge the following volunteers because of their dedication and their help today. A special thank you to Terry Millar, who's operating the sound system. Thank you to our lay minister, Tom Boykoff. Our greeter upstairs with the big smile was Lynn Scoby. And the ushers who are managing this unruly crowd include Tom Dalmudge, Ann Ostrom, and Paula Alt. Special thank you, high fives to Biss Nitschke and Sandra Plisch for taking care of the hospitality and the coffee after the service. So be sure to express your appreciation to those volunteers today. Just two brief announcements before we get on with the service. Both of them have to do with our Children's Religious Education Program, a very vibrant program here at First Unitarian Society. The first announcement is a request for help and volunteers. If you have about four hours a month, and remember you got an extra hour this month, so if you have about four hours a month to help with the nurturing of our children's social and ethical development, the children's religious education program has many kids on a waiting list. And that's a scary thought. Kids on a waiting list is worse than snakes on a plane, I think. For either a preschool class or for K-1, we'd love to get your help so that we can add another section for either or both age groups for next semester, but we can't do it without your help. The additional section would be either a Saturday or Sunday session at 11 a.m., and you get a chance to team teach so you can share the load, the workflow, and it's a great way to connect with the kids of our FUS family. If you're interested, please see Leslie Ross. You'll notice her. She's usually over in this corner of the commons after each service because she's our Director of Religious Education, and she's also excited about our second announcement because it involves art in the right place, also known as a shortage of parking spaces. The landmark building just across the parking lot features 47 artists. Every year, this is a real popular event. They're selling and displaying their art, woodwork, glass, and fiber art, pottery, and more. You can also stop at the bake sale in the commons to buy yourself a yummy treat and to sustain you for the many hours that we're sure you're going to spend at art in the right place, and guess where the proceeds go? Children's Religious Education Program, the Art Fair. It runs from 9.30 until four o'clock today. So end of the announcements. I invite you to sit back or lean forward to enjoy today's service. I know that it will touch your heart, stir your spirit, and trigger one or two new thoughts. We're glad you're here. You are brokenhearted, who woke today with the winds of despair whistling through your mind, come in. You who are brave but wounded, limping through life and hurting with every step, come in. You who are fearful, who lie with shadows hovering over your shoulders, come in. This place is sanctuary, and it is for you. You who are filled with happiness, whose abundance overflows, come in. You who walk through your world with lightness and grace, who awoke this morning with strength and hope. You who have everything to give, come in. This place is your calling. A riverbank to channel the sweet waters of your life, the place where you are called by the world's deep need. Here we offer in love. Here we receive in gratitude. Here we make a circle from the great gifts of breath, attention, and purpose. Come in. You are welcome here. And if you rise now out of your spirit, joining together in the affirmation for our chalice lighting, it is printed in your order of service. We light our chalice with these hopes, that the other side inspires us to build bridges, that a dream inside keeps us awake to our passions, that grief opens us and makes us human, and that we risk all to heal and be healed. And before we join together in song, if you'll take a moment to turn and greet those around you, please be seated. If you arrived here today with a sorrow so heavy that you need the help of this community to carry it, or if you woke with a joy so great that it simply must be shared, now is the time. The sharing of joys and sorrows is our time in the spirit of acceptance and support to share with one another some special event or circumstance that has affected your life or the life of a loved one in recent days or weeks. This is not a time for general announcements or political opinion, as strong as those may be. As you share, please remember that our listeners are not limited to those in this room as the services are broadcast on the internet. So for the next few minutes, anyone who wishes is invited to step to the front of the auditorium, light a candle, using the microphone provided by Anne, our lay minister, briefly share with us your message. You may also come forward to wordlessly light a candle, and if you're unable to come forward for any reason, just raise your hand and Anne will bring the microphone to you. I now open the floor for the sharing of our sorrows and our joys. Hi, my name is Mary. I have a sister who three years ago lost her husband to cancer, was then diagnosed with a diffused large cell lymphoma, which she went through chemo and got over and was recently diagnosed with follicular lymphoma. So she's going to start chemo on the 16th. I woke up this morning and realized that I was feeling very stressed about what's coming up, and I thought, come here, so thank you. I light this candle in memory of Lou Crook, a long time member who died last month, and thinking about her husband, Jack. I light this candle for my friend, Paris Gomez, and her partner, Anne Powell, as they work on healing the illness that Paris currently is working to lift out of her body. I light this candle in thankfulness for the Peace and Justice Book Club, because I've read some books that have just really helped me to deal with things, and the one that I was reading recently is Healing the Heart of Democracy, and it really made me feel hopeful about where our country can go. Hi, my name is Marilyn, and we moved here from Seattle in the early, I guess, in June, and I had no idea how hard it would be to leave all of our friends. And so it's been really lonely, and I'm a public speaker, so I'm usually the person full of energy. I'm the one who brings all the joy. I'm having a hard time finding my joy right now in my community, so I'm so happy you're here, close to where we live. We are lighting a candle of joy for Baby Emmett, who joined our family at the end of September. I'm Elizabeth, and I like that candle in gratitude. I realized I've now been a member here for 20 years. I know I can't believe it. And I think of all the things that I've learned here, the leadership skills, the spiritual values, the finding God in my heart, so to speak, and also the musical training. Just everything I've learned has just been an amazing ride. So thanks to everyone. I'm Jody. We're lighting two candles today. One for my grandma and our great grandma, who is in the hospital with congestive heart failure. We're also lighting a candle for my friend Louise, who is grappling with stage 4 cancer. She had a very emotionally difficult day yesterday. Hey, I'm Steve Goldberg, and I want to share a joy. After working 48 and a half years at the same company, I've announced my retirement at the end of this year. And if you will light one last candle for this prayer. Spirit of love, help us never to forget. We are your voice, hands, eyes, ears, and heart upon this one precious earth. Help us to live in peace together and serve one another, to see the holy light in everyone. Even when those lights are especially hard to see. Help us to accept difference and learn to delight in it. Most of all, no matter how things go, help us to be compassionate today, and in all the days to come. And now as we rise in body or spirit to sing our next hymn, our children and teachers may leave for classes. Please be seated. Our reading today from Omid Safi, who is a columnist for On Being. This week we had an interesting situation related to the visit of an international guest. Unexpectedly, the situation led to a powerful mystical insight that continues to both haunt and inspire me. Our visitor came to us from Turkey, where he is one of the leading musicians. He traveled with his musical instruments, a treasury of a thousand years of sacred music in his heart, and his beloved cell phone. He loves to show off pictures of beautiful natural scenes on his phone, especially majestically colored birds, animals living together in peace and harmony, and scenes of nature's splendor. A masterful artist himself, he pauses periodically after a picture to praise the divine as the ultimate artist. There is a grace about how he relates to his technology. He always makes his human companion still feel like the most important person on earth, only welcoming us inside his own world of beauty and art. The technology somehow amplifies, rather than distracts from his inner world of beauty and sacredness, so graceful, so kind, so lovely. One small problem. Turkish cell phones, like many European models, use a different electrical outlet. My friend's phone runs not on the one 10 volt American outlets, but on the European 220. He had a charging cable, but we couldn't plug it into the wall. This was the way that he reflected on the work of the eternal and also how he keeps up with his so beloved wife back home. So with much sadness, we watched the charge on the phone going down and down. So I promised to help. I called the usual big box stores to see if they had an electrical converter. Sadly, they all said the same thing. They sell converters to help Americans travel in Europe, but not the ones for Europeans traveling in the U.S. But at long last I found a humble store. I described the problem to the person answering the phone and he confidently said that they had the desired adapter. I asked him if he could hold one for me and he said he would. I rushed right over. As promised, he was holding the item. With a mischievous smile, he said, this will do exactly what you need. I was somewhat surprised by the smile, but went ahead and paid for the item. It wasn't expensive, some seven dollars. Sure enough, it worked. I could plug the European plug into the adapter and the adapter into our electrical outlets. I tested it at the store. It worked perfectly. The phone came on and started to charge. Hallelujah! I thanked him profusely and began to leave. He still had the mischievous smile on. As I was gathering my belongings, he said, you already had the solution within you. Somehow the statement hit me like a Zen Cohen. Like the words of a sage who walks around disguising his wisdom inside ordinary everyday situations. I turned around slowly and asked him to repeat what he had said, so again he said slowly, you already had the solution within you. The world went quiet. All I could hear was this phrase, already solution, you baffled, I looked at him. He asked if he could borrow my friend's European charging cable and I handed it over. Lo and behold, he pulled off the cable from the charging unit that attached to the electrical outlet. One end of the cable attached to the phone, the other end was a normal humble USB plug. He said with a smile, you already had the solution. And then explained that while he was happy to sell me the adapter, I actually didn't need it. I could have charged that phone and any phone with a similar cable, almost anywhere. He asked if my friend traveled with a laptop. I said no. He asked if he was staying with me or in a hotel. I was puzzled by the relevance but answered truthfully that he was staying at a hotel. The living sage, disguised as a humble electrical store employee, took the cable holding it by the USB port, said, every hotel room has a TV. In the back of all these modern TVs is a USB port. You already have the solution for charging. All you have to do is plug this cable into the phone and this end into the USB port and turn on the TV. The TV will charge the phone. You already had the solution within you. Walking to my car and eventually to my Turkish friend who was so joyous I kept marveling at the beautiful truth of this statement. How often we, not our phones, but we beings of cosmic dust mingled with spirit run low. Low on energy, on breath, on spirit. How often we are dangerously close to running out of power except that we don't know how to recharge. We run here and there trying this and that, sometimes a medicine, sometimes an adventurous journey to stimulate ourselves. Do we know ourselves well enough to know that the means of recharging is already hidden within us? We are not machines. No machine can match the subtlety of the human soul. But the one analogy is that like those machines when the red battery light comes on we too need to be recharged. And the very means of recharging is already inside us. Do we know? Do we know our own selves well enough to know how to do this? Do we know our beloveds well enough to know how to do this with them? Do we realize that different people run on different methods of being charged? For some it's prayer, some meditation, some the gentle touch of a love one. For some a stroll in the woods. Can we remain humble enough to know that one method that works for one's soul may not recharge another? Each of us needs to recharge in the means that are right or best for us and that means may change from day to day. Whatever it is let us be aware of the truth that if we know how to access it the solution is already within us. It says Meeting House Chorus and James Reeb Choir. So I want to officially welcome the James Reeb Choir for exchange that Dan and Heather are doing. Reeb is with us today. Thank you. I posted the following words a few days ago which she titled the chaos of now. There have been small roving bands of fretful freaked out liberals in my neighborhood all weekend gathering in agonies of hopelessness. They're dogs who really have to go wait patiently at their feet. Then I lumber up the most tightly wired person we know and they look at me hoping I will say the exact right thing. When I am distressed as I am now I go to my groups of friends hoping someone will say the exact right thing to pull me out of the pinball game in my mind. The exact right thing she says would break the swirling trance of catastrophic thought, hit my heart's reset button and remind me that love and grace bat last. The pond inside me would settle and I would see through the water that most of my reactive terror and my held breath are the survival tools of childhood. Those tools didn't work very well when I was six nor do they work well at 62 but I always pull them out first from the battered old toolbox. Remembering this means I can now move on to what may help today a worried mercy a vulnerability and wonder. Here's the exact right thing I need to hear. The randomness and racism and brutality are what is but so are decency sacrificial love and goodness. Sometimes the scary sickening voices seem louder than truth and beauty but they aren't really. Democracy the great good thing one person one vote is the loudest voice in the land. Maybe God or goodness or good orderly direction or gift of desperation is in whom we move live and have our being but the world is a chaotic place and humanity is a chaotic place and I am a chaotic place most days. So I take the right action I get my own emotional acre in order through radical self-care serving the poor sharing my M&Ms and flirting with the very very old then the insight follows the one I share with my Sunday school kids every single week that all evidence to the contrary we are loved we stick together we share we listen Wendell Berry tweeted today love someone who doesn't deserve it I'm going to begin with my dog who accidentally ate a pound of butter and all the bagels then I'll work my way up to James Comey and then myself it's good to be afraid when it mobilizes us to fight tooth and nail for what is right when it pricks the balloon of our complacent when it gets us back on our feet a lot of us are both afraid and devoutly faithful at the exact same time but what is true and the exact right thing I need to hear is that courage is fear which has set its prayers I too have found myself in the past few weeks among those who might consider themselves gathered in agonies of hopelessness as I have seen familiar faces in the grocery store or oddly enough in the pool or at the pickup group at school I've been asked for the magic right words the words that are going to make the anxiety go away and give some semblance of hope and peace I must admit to being uncharacteristically quiet as the only words that pop into my head are this is all so broken I'm sure we each have our own story of when we realize that there are times when things do indeed fall apart when it can't be put back together it can't be fixed that there is brokenness in this world for me it was the spring of 1980 when at five years old my grandfather passed away suddenly at the age of 64 on that day and in the days shortly after I experienced my first taste of grief loss confusion the realization that part of life is learning how to live amid the brokenness I also discovered during that time in reflection looking back with grown-up eyes that there's a power to be found there as well as Ernest Hemingway once said the world breaks everyone and afterward some are strong at the broken places reading or hearing recent news we can come to the conclusion that our world is indeed broken there's murder and violence hatred and terror abuse and pain recent months and days have been an expose of all that is broken our media racism misogyny and so much more we are all so damaged in this process that many of us find it hard to catch a breath we do not live in a wonderland of peace and joy we live in the challenging here and now with so much in pieces all around us I've been holding tightly to the words of Roshani Ray in this poem she wrote years ago titled unbroken there is a brokenness out of which comes the unbroken a shatteredness out of which blooms the unshatterable there is a sorrow beyond all grief which leads to joy and a fragility out of whose depth emerges strength there's a hollow space too vast for words through which we pass with each loss out of whose darkness we are sanctioned into being there's a cry deeper than all sound whose serrated edges cut the heart as we break open to the place inside which is unbreakable and whole while learning to sing brokenness is not the end of our story as much as we might want to throw our hands up as much as we might want to gather in agonies of hopelessness we must declare that all is most definitely not lost because we know it doesn't end here we are called to live our lives in the face of brokenness and pain with hearts wide open and in that openness is strength hope it's where we find compassion and courage and the ability to stay awake Joanna Macy once said do not be afraid of the anguish you feel or the anger or fear for these responses arise from the depth of your caring and the truth of your interconnectedness with all beings if we can feel all of this we have the capacity and the ability to stay awake during these difficult times this is a piece of our power that we have witnessed in recent months people waking up to the disconnection the dehumanization the anger the rage loss fear grief waking up and saying maybe for the first time ever how can i help what can i do how do i learn more who can i talk to work with join there's an increased awareness and an uptick of action signing petitions calling legislators marching in protests talking with those friends and family members that you may have never talked to about this before staying awake getting involved this strength this action is the byproduct of hearts that have been broken broken down and broken open now as a whole let's just say it we unitarian universalists are not that good at that spiritual tenant of detachment we are not the ones to hang on to a calm acceptance of the way things are that's not us we tend to be the ones who are committed to fixing the problems we want to make things better for our communities our children our world we proclaim that people of good will working together can change the course for the better it's one of our strengths we are not generally a humble people we are a go get a make it better fix it today kind of people yet what i have seen is a growing humility a sense that things may be so broken that we can't rush to fix them we need to sit down together and sit with the brokenness we need to listen to the pain of another share our own stories we need to be able to say those so difficult words i don't know and the only thing i do know is that we are not alone in this struggle let's admit it it may not be fine and it's terrifying we may be in for a long hall here people there may be things we can't fix with humility we turn to each other and we say i don't know i'm scared and what we find our hands willing to hold ours eyes willing to face the fear with us and in that connection comes our strength together with humility we work toward this last piece the piece that brings healing and that's the work of forgiveness let's be clear on what forgiveness is not forgiveness is not about forgiven forget it's not letting another off the hook for injuries and damage that can't be repaired forgiveness is not allowing the person who harmed you to walk away with no responsibility for their actions it doesn't mean that we put ourselves in harm's way time and again and allow abuse bad behavior harm to continue it doesn't guarantee that relationships will be repaired at times the damage is too great reconciliation may not be an option forgiveness is about our own salvation our own healing transforming our relationship with what has hurt us so that it cannot continue to hurt us without it we can live the violation over and over again living in resentment and pain with no chance of release forgiveness is freedom it is the extending of compassion it is humbling it is hard work it's work that brings healing the stanford forgiveness project claims forgiveness is the feeling of peace that emerges as you take your hurt less personally when you take responsibility for how you feel and become a hero instead of a victim in the story that you tell it means that even though you are wounded you choose to hurt and suffer less forgiveness means you become a part of the solution forgiveness is the understanding that hurt is a part of life it is for you and no one else and forgiveness is for ourselves when we too are unable to live up to our values and ideals when we hurt others with our words actions or in action when the brokenness is overwhelming and we lash out in fear or anger only when we forgive when we forgive ourselves and then others can we keep our hearts open keep hold of what we cherish find the power in the brokenness and find that place of unbroken wholeness deep inside omid safi the author of our reading today said we live in an age of bluster we have presidential candidates praised for speaking their mind instead of inquiring about what is on their mind and how much wisdom and compassion is in their heart how do we preserve sanity compassion humility and empathy it's a good question especially as we move toward tuesday and then to january and then beyond how are we going to go forward as a nation as a people no matter the outcome be indivisible with no one tossed aside already vast numbers of our people are disregarded disrespected forgotten in prison or in poverty and in the past months the fabric of our community has been torn more and more perhaps beyond repair now in the 19th century our universalist forebears named their congregations all souls all souls all human souls together no one ever forgotten this faith of ours is difficult work but a faith such as this can be healing i think of the loved ones of those killed at the immanuel ame church in charleston i hear their words when they spoke to dylan roof at his court appearance and those were not words filled with anger they were filled with loss with pain with grief and they were words that offered forgiveness wanda simons granddaughter of daniel simons said although my grandfather and the other victims died at the hands of hate this is proof everyone's plea for your soul and everyone's forgiveness this is proof that these people lived in love and their legacies will live in love so hate won't win the sister of depain middleton doctor told him that was my sister and i'd like to thank you on behalf of my family for not allowing hate to win for me i'm a work in progress but one thing that depain always told us what she taught me is that we are the family that love built we have no room for hating so we forgive hate can't win when we forgive this was not a sudden change of heart for these people this was a lifetime of work a lifetime of prayer practice practicing forgiveness and the choice to love the choice to heal a lifetime of stumbling and failing and trying again a lifetime of seeing beneath the ills of racism and violence into the soul the humanity of someone who caused so much pain seeing into that soul and believing in their hearts that the holy resides in there as well these family members who have looked so much are choosing forgiveness as the path to love a brave courageous love that leaves no one behind this love shows the true healing power healing the grief and anger healing that refuses to allow this tragic loss and a building of hate to take over their lives this is our work as well this is who we are universalists who say everyone is loved and unitarians who know that we must be the ones to do the loving we are the ones here on the ground the work of love is our work if i could go back to my five-year-old self sitting in that funeral home watching my family trying to make sense of loss i would tell her this stay awake to the preciousness of each day see the joy as well as the pain feel all the feels and know that they are keeping you awake to what truly matters i would tell her that it's okay to admit when you don't know that you can't fix everything and when you feel broken reach out to those you love to help you put the pieces together again admit when you need help and learn how to accept it with gratitude and grace and i would ask her to forgive to do that work of healing by finding the compassion the light that lives in each of us to let go for her own sake and for those she loves to create a house of love where there's no room for hate i would ask her to love for its own sake to leave no one behind to love the world in all its truth and all its sorrow its cruelty and its glory for it is in this all-encompassing love that we find our own unbreakable wholeness together and we can love ourselves and this beautiful wounded imperfect world into healing i now invite you into the giving and receiving of the morning's offering you'll see in your order of service that this outreach offering is shared with dry hooch you can find out more about their good work in the order of service also the table in the commons after service and we thank you for your generosity if you will rise now and body your spirit for our closing hymn number 100 these words are from rabbi rami Shapiro we are loved by an unending love we are embraced by arms that find us even when we are hidden from ourselves we are touched by fingers that soothe us even when we are too proud for soothing we are counseled by voices that guide us even when we are too embittered to hear we are supported by hands that uplift us even in the midst of a fall we are urged on by eyes that meet us even when we are too weak for meeting we are loved by an unending love embrace touched soothed counseled ours are the arms the fingers the voices ours are the hands the eyes the smiles we are loved by an unending love may we work to make it so blessed be and go in peace