 This is just going to be much humor, but I'm going to get out of my harness. No, it's just me there. The harness on, and I can tell you this too. I hope so. Maybe Steve will see. You two are getting older. It always surprises me the room that's moving in. I love life. And the music is all up. We do. You can't play, I can't play. Did I tell you that I was in my room? We only wanted to play. It's just me over there. You know what I'm saying? We were going to play. We were going to play. We were going to play. We were going to play. Yeah. That said, I'm going to start without it. Check. Check. My friends are all playing here. Everybody must see the game. It's fun. All the other teams didn't want to play. They didn't want to consider that. Why are they still here? I think they're still here. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Good morning. Welcome to the First Unitarian Society of Madison. This is 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 the Reverend Doug Watkins. I'm on the clergy staff here and on behalf of the congregation I would like to extend a special welcome to our visitors. We are a welcoming congregation so wherever you are on your life's journey, whoever you are, you are invited to be here with us. This would be a wonderful time for us to silence our cell phones and before we move into a moment of silence I'd like to invite Dorit to make a special announcement. The Dane Sanctuary Coalition of which FUS is a founding member has initiated a volunteer driver project to assist our immigrant neighbors. Immigrants both those who don't have papers and those who do sometimes have to attend immigration court in Chicago or homeland security appointments in Milwaukee. Getting to these appointments can be very difficult. The volunteer driver project provides rides to Chicago and Milwaukee for folks who need them. In the few months this project has been in operation we have helped 16 people get to where they need to go either to have their asylum cases heard or their residency applications processed. The following is a quote from an email sent to us by a local immigration attorney. You should know that the woman who you arranged for a volunteer to take to Milwaukee for her biometrics appointment earlier this year was granted asylum yesterday. I want you to know that this service is helping to save lives. Thank you. We now need to expand our pool of available drivers. FUS will hold a volunteer driver training on Sunday July 7th from 1115 to 1215. I will be available after the service today if you have any questions and more details will be in the red floors. I do hope to see some of you at the training. Thank you. Thank you Doran. And now as we prepare ourselves to enter into the spirit of worship may we take a couple of moments together of centering quiet. May we rise in all the ways that we do as we join together in our opening hymn number 112. Do you hear? Do you hear oh my friend in the place where you stand through the sky through the land do you hear do you hear in the hines on the plane in the veil on the main in the sun in the rain do you hear through the rush through the throng through the crush do you of your soul of you hear the cry hear a sigh startling trill in your soul from the place where you stand to the most strand the sighs all the prayers they are yours mine and theirs to remaining standing for opening words and then for the lighting of our chalice start where you are when change comes as it always does it helps to know who you are sometimes all we have is a shadow of ourselves sometimes only projections I've heard it said that we need to just keep peeling back the layers of the onion but few can do so without crying and fewer still without stripping away their skin sheer barriers alternating with heavy sharpness yet the scent that lingers on the fingertips offers a gentler reminder that when you do the work of cutting through illusion we nourish ourselves and others the chalice lighting words are printed in your order of service may we read them together as I spark the chalice as together we say we like this chalice may we turn towards each other and offer a friendly greeting my microphone today we need to think about the various kinds of perspectives ways that we look at things and sometimes we get so close to things that we can't see the bigger part of who they are so sometimes we get caught up in looking too closely and then sometimes we are so far back that we miss the important small things and sometimes we think we may know what's going on but we do not actually know the full story at all and so today I'm gonna read Anna Kang and Christopher Wayans you are not small and it may at times look like you have some idea what's going to happen in the story but how the story actually occurs is very different so let's see what happens you are not small you are small I am not small you are big I am not big see they are just like me you are small I am not small see they are just like me you are big you are all big you are all small small big small big they're getting very excited about this aren't they boom see I am not small to the little guy of course see I am not big no you are not big you are big and you are small and you are not small you are small and you are big I'm hungry let's eat you are hairy so sometimes we think we know who we are but it's only in how we are in relationship to other people and as we get to know other people and the world around us it changes how we think about ourselves that's why we come here week after week is we get to know each other and by getting to know each other better and better we understand and see the world differently and continue to grow together so a little story that reminds us of something very important how we keep learning new things about ourselves and each other I invite you now to head to your classes and we will sing you out with number 352 let's rise in all the ways we do and sing together have a good class thanks for joining me for a story time you may be seated in preparation for our reflection this morning a reading from Pema children and an excerpt from start where you are one evening Milarepa returned to his cave after gathering firewood only to find it filled with demons they were cooking his food reading his books sleeping in his bed they had taken over the joint he knew about non-duality of self and other things like that but he didn't really know quite how to get these guys out of his cave even though he had the sense that they were just a projection of his own mind all the unwanted parts of himself still he didn't know how to get rid of them so first he taught them the Dharma he sat on his seat that was higher than they were said things to them about how we are all one he talked about compassion and shunyata and how poison is medicine nothing happened the demons were still there then he lost his patience and got angry and ran at them they just laughed at him finally he gave up and just sat down on the floor saying I'm not going away and it looks like you're not either so let's just live here together at that point all of them except one left Milarepa said oh this one is particularly vicious we all know that one sometimes we have lots of them like that sometimes we feel that's all we've got he didn't know what to do so he surrendered himself even further he walked over and put himself right into the mouth of the demon and said just eat me up if you want to then that demon left too when the resistance is gone she continues so are the demons it's like a koan that can work by learning how to be more gentle how to relax how to surrender to the situations and people in our lives ego is like our own room with a view with the temperature and the smells and the music that we like we want to have it our own way you'd just like to have a little peace you'd like to have a little happiness you know just give me a break but the more you think that way the more you try to get life to come out so that it will always suit you and the more that you fear other people and what's outside of your room grows in fear rather than becoming more relaxed you start pulling down the shades and locking the door and when you go out you find the experience more and more unsettling and disagreeable you become touchier more fearful more irritable than ever the more you try to just get your the way get your own way the less you feel at home here ends the reading so as your inner and minister if I had one broken record style of message that I would convey to you over and over again so that at some point you could finish the sentence for me I would wish for that phrase to be simply life is transition your health your emotional health your physical health your spiritual health is always changing your relationships whether you are willing to face it or not yet are always in flux life is always asking something different of you from moment to moment and therefore if you are really listening to life there's always some level of change going on within and around you and congregational life itself it's made up of people it is always about change the people come and go what it is that is important in the congregation changes with the world around the congregation and it too asks you again and again to do different things sometimes those changes are so subtle you don't notice them and sometimes especially the cumulative effect of those changes can be very jarring and difficult and yet it is always the essence of what we do together the only difference honestly in this time in the life of the congregation is that you are being very intentional about the honesty of the change and letting that change in your own life and in the larger life of the congregation be an opportunity to practice deeper skills to participate more fully more intentionally sometimes more boldly in the dance that life is always asking you to participate in and the only real way to take part in that dance is even if it feels awkward or strange to you whether the dance is your own life or this communal dance that we try to do together but as Pima Shodran says to engage that fully to let yourself be present to it knowing that the power of that dance while it will change and while at times it will feel wonderful and other times awkward and strange the dance will go on you are invited to engage it as fully as you can sometimes even if you feel like your own life will devour you and the thing is when you give yourself that fully to life what it can do to you and for you is so powerful so life changing that in many ways it is what we are put on this planet to do but in the midst of the change the Terentella of change we are always figuring out how to join the dance how we're doing at the steps of the dance whether we are awkwardly out of sync with the beat of the dance whether we even know where the downbeat is so that we can join it and feel in the right time in place it is natural and the more complicated an organization the more important that we be thoughtful about the dance itself an organizational expert Ronald Heifetz reminds us of this without conflict intention music lacks dynamism and movement the composer in the improvisational musician alike must contain the dissonance within a frame that holds the audience's attention until resolution is found music also teaches us to distinguish the varieties of silence restless energized bored tranquil sublime with silence one creates moments so that something new can be heard one holds the tension in an audience or working group or punctuates important phrases allowing time for the message to settle creating music takes place in relation to structures and audience structural limits provides scaffolding for creativity play dough put it this way if there is no contradictory impression there is nothing to awaken reflection people create relation to something or someone always and although the audience may be safely tucked away inside the composer's mind it is still there so for this last few months we have begun to explore the dance that we are in together and a lot of what I've invited you to do in the small group experiences and in some of the sermons I've presented is to get more up close to the truth of who you are now who you singular and you plural this congregation who you are because mostly when it is business as usual you don't really take time to look honestly at the full range of who attends this place week after week and for that matter who chooses not to attend this place and what keeps them out all of those questions are important and hyphens reminds us to really understand a system or yourself in the midst of action requires the ability to achieve some distance from those on the ground events we use the metaphor he says of getting on the balcony above the dance floor to depict what it means to gain the distance perspective you need to see what is really happening and so we need both experiences we need to engage the dance of our individual and our communal lives fully and really roll up our sleeves dive into it and see what it does to us but if we do that for too long without stepping back and up onto the balcony to see the larger dance the larger perspective then we start missing some of the most important things that we need to know we miss some of its beauty we miss some of its complexity we miss some of the power that can only be enjoyed from afar and so for just a moment I invite us to return to a couple of a few of the things that I have shared with you but this time to step back on the balcony to think about what these areas that are important these areas that you have told me and showed me again and again are important to you to not so much be in the dance but step back enough to think about the important questions to explore in our future when we come together in the official part of the new church year we will do a variety of things together I'll invite you to talk with each other about what you believe is at the heart of First Unitarian Society you will be in conversation with each other about what you believe the missional identity of this congregation what it is now who are you whom do you serve both in this place in the larger world what is the world calling you to do now in order for you to really engage those questions well let me ask you to think over the summer a little bit about these major areas returning to them but this time asking larger questions you'll notice and I was at first surprised that with each of them really what I find myself reflecting on is what is sort of the core mission that is suggested by this part of your congregational life and how are you asked to relate to that mission well as I thought about it it was not at first intentional but there's sometimes wisdom and what you discover in its own right this congregation is on the cusp of two essential sizes and larger congregations you are right between what is called a professionalization or professional size congregation and a strategic size congregation that means that it is still important for you to continue to grow as leaders and as staff to understand the skills that you need to bring and to really raise the bar in how you work with each other but the other part the leading edge part is that again and again this congregation is large enough to do many things but it can't do everything and so you as a congregation will need to help your leaders make difficult and strategic choices thinking carefully about what are the few important precious life giving things that this congregation can do to make a difference and so with each of these five areas that you have told me matter deeply let's think from the balcony about what it says about our sense of purpose and what careful choices we will make about how we move through them into them out into the world in the dance of our lives we begin with number one the thing that probably you have mentioned to me over and over again most often that music is an essential and important part of your life here one of the things that music does is that it is great at building bridges it is the conduit of important and significant connection it can be that between the congregants themselves that allows you at times to connect with each other and that is part of the reason that our new director of music drew Collins has made it his point to lead singing more often because he knows that one of the primary ways that congregations connect more deeply is when they get out of the hymnal and into the power of the song and listen to each other more deeply a congregation that sings together well begins to know each other well and feel that powerful bond but it is also a bridge builder outside of this congregation so I wonder in the future what it is that you will choose to do as a congregation with your music that invites more and more people to be a part of this congregation because music is so culturally and general generationally based it is important that you choose carefully the diversity that you offer in the sort of relationships that you foster outside of this place the ongoing work as a worship team and the ongoing work that drew is doing will help that happen but your thoughtful participation and how music may be a more powerful and larger bridge builder of this congregation will be essential in the future from the balcony I wonder what larger vision of music will emerge in the coming months and how it will continue to evolve in its role in worship so that we might not only benefit ourselves but the larger world the second area that you told me over and over again is essential to you is the area of working for justice and peace and social justice and justice work in general all of it ecological and climate justice human rights and economic justice our work to confront violence in the world in all of its layers that is some of the most important work that we are here to do on this planet all of it is meaningful and I have no doubt that we will continue to find ways to engage all of that justice work but as a resource congregation the ways that we focus our time our financial resources our significant energies in strategic ways will make an important difference in what we are able to do most effectively in the realm of justice we won't limit our justice work but larger congregations have found that when they are able to choose carefully and focus their energy every year on a few particularly urgent places of social justice or climate change when they focus that energy what they are able to do is significantly more powerful from the balcony I wonder how you will be in conversation with each other about the difficulty of choosing more carefully where you focus your social justice energy and how you will invite more of the congregation to be a part of the work of justice in the world the third area that you've told me over and over again is important to you is probably the largest it is one of the central things that you do here in every way you have told me that spiritual deepening is part of one of the most essential reasons that brings you coming here again and again you've talked about it in terms of the ways that the services engage your intellect you talked about it in the ways that it engages your feelings and your spiritual life you talked about it in the lives of our children and how our children's religious education program is an essential ministry that we offer and that life span journey through elementary school into youth and through adulthood all of it is essential but as we have been in conversation in the last few months you have begun to ask each other how to better integrate in that deepening heart and mind and body in our work together how it is through our worship and our religious education and all that we do that we understand how interdependent all three of those are not divisive or separating but deeply integrated in being the whole beings that we were put on this planet to fully embody and without that how we are in some ways falling short of our full humanity what will that look like as we work together how will you be in conversation to understand what needs you bring and how again to reach out in better and fuller ways to a world that could benefit so powerfully from the message and the spiritual deepening that we offer here this is one of the most large and powerful ways that we will think about our future another area that came up over and over again as probably a subsection of this deepening are the ways that you are in smaller groups together that allow you to know one another to engage in deeper conversation to do the work that needs to be done in the world and for me the most important thing is to think about from the balcony what is necessary for that small group ministry all of it our journey circles are our covenant groups of the ways that our affinity groups do their work new kinds of small groups that we haven't even yet discovered how can we keep that ministry vital and alive and even more vibrant especially since it lands in the world of one of our staff members who is probably most stretched in the last year as part of the difficulties of the economy of the congregation you combined your membership in adult spirituality position into a single position making one of the most important areas of this congregation most stretched in terms of staffing it will require us to think carefully about how to allow us to do the work that we need to do and keep that ministry vibrant in the future and finally you have told me again and again that the beauty of this space and this place is a deeply spiritual and powerful gift to you that when you come in to this room or when you are at the landmark and think about its amazing history and creativity that something powerful happens how from the balcony can we do the work to better integrate that understanding of who we are in the daily life of our congregation how can more of us understand that we each in some way have a calling to support the beauty and the health and the sustainability of our sacred spaces here how can we do that work better together in the coming months I invite us to be in the dance fully to talk with each other powerfully about what is really true for each of us to speak our own truth but also to listen in a heartfelt and thoughtful way not as the ends but as a means to a deeper understanding of the dance that we are doing together and how that dance may lead us into a new era with great power with incredible energy with life changing choices what is it that we are called to do how will we live that truth together Eric Jantz wrote this to live in an evolutionary spirit means to engage with full ambition and without any reserve in the structure of the present and yet to let go and flow into a new structure when the right time has come that time has come for this congregation what new flow will carry you into your future and what will help you do that work together as you have for so many decades we've had a powerful gear may the new church here lead us powerfully into a new understanding of first Unitarian society so may it be for each and every one of us amen and blessed be every week we come together and one of the things that we do is we think about the gifts that we have been given and how we may return those gifts for the greater good as we move into our time of offering I invite you to that spiritual practice what gifts have you been offered and how may you offer them forward for the greater good of the world such a spirit of abundance and generosity may it be present as the offering is given and received we are grateful for your generosity as we have received our offering we are also grateful for all of the ways that we help one another we have many worship volunteers that are necessary for this ongoing ministry we had a huge outpouring of fun and volunteerism last night at our cabaret which was an incredible success I look forward to sharing with you more about how much money we raised but what I was especially moved by was just the spirit of fun and community that was part of last night and a huge thanks to Cheryl our staff member who has spent so many thousands of hours I imagine getting ready for last night you have an opportunity in second chance Sunday there are some leftover auction items that are available just for this Sunday and so before you leave check out what is available in the Commons and take some of that with you as well for a moment may we move into a time of reflecting on the cares of the congregation every week as we come together we share in the gift of this community knowing that that gift includes moments of powerful celebration and moments of great difficulty and so for just a moment in reflection together as we let our breath bring us fully to this place and as we come fully into this place first to remember our own lives the things in your life that are gifts to you and the things that are challenges moments of loss or a frustration gifts of love or connection or celebration for a moment hold them in the power that they have for you and may our minds and hearts move beyond our own lives both to the lives of those that you know and love and to the larger life of people that are part of this community or in your larger existence may we hold their joys and sorrows as well some known to us some yet unspoken there are ways that we offer each other the gift of connection that we may not even realize and we are grateful for this as well may we remember that we are part of a web of life that makes us one with all humanity one with a very universe itself may we be grateful for that miracle of life may we share and hope together in the power to care to remember and to love all of this and more we hope and pray amen and blessed be I invite us to rise and all of the ways that we do and turn to number 300 and a weapon let it be a dance let it be a dance we do may I have this dance with you through the good times and the bad times too let it be a dance a dancing song be heard play the music say the words and fill the sky with sailing birds let it be a dance let it be a dance let it be a dance learn to follow the feel the rhythm feel the need to reap the harvest plant the sea let it be a dance let it be a dance we do may I have this dance with you through the good times and the bad times too let it be a day everybody turn and spin let your body learn to bend and like a willow with a way to dance let it be let it be a dance a child is born the old must die a time for joy a time to cry take it as it passes by let it be a dance we do I have this dance with you through the good times and the bad times too let it be a day morning star comes out at night without the dark there is no law if nothing's wrong then nothing's raw let the sunshine let it rain share the laughter repair the pain and round and round we go let it be a day and now as we prepare to leave this place may we find our own way into the dance knowing that however we dance through our lives we add to its complexity and its beauty we extinguish this chalice but not the light of larger wisdom not the fire of our commitment to the things that matter most in life not the warmth of love compassion and community these remain in our lives until we gather in this place again I invite you to take your seat to receive one more gift of music and worship