Prelude – “World” by Five for Fighting

(Some random announcements and candle lightings came in here)

Hymn: We are a gentle angry people #170

Opening thoughts:
Good morning. I am ________, the director of religious education for 4.5 years. Welcome to the 4^th Sunday Intergenerational Spiritual Celebration. The 4^th Sunday intergen SC offers us the chance to learn what it was that our children were doing earlier in the month. This month was a little odd, and I might, within reason, be able to stand up here and have the kids show you how they made snowballs and snowmen and somehow relate that to Unitarian Universalism, because my guess is that is what several of our kids did this month on Sunday mornings. Instead of them sharing with you what they learned, I will share with you what they were going to learn had old man winter not come a knocking so loudly this month. Thank you for coming, and allowing me the opportunity to share with you what our children do. There may have been some skepticism about the frequency of these intergenerational programs when we first discussed this monthly format, and I hope that like the recent snow and ice, that skepticism has melted away before too many people slipped on it.

If the children would come forward, ______ will share with them one of the classics of children’s literature: Enemy Pie.

(this is a hilarious story about a kid whose dad tricks him into turning his best enemy into a good friend by making enemy pie, which is a normal pie. The trick is before you can have your enemy over to eat the pie, you have to spend a day playing with the enemy. You get the idea! My reader is a very theatrical guy who reminds me of a young Mark Twain - at least what I think a young Mark Twain would be like)

The theme for the month in Religious Education was Unitarian Universalism. January seemed like a good time, what with people resolving to make changes, hopefully for the better, and touching base with our roots seemed natural to me. Some Januaries see an influx of new faces thru our doors, as we promise ourselves to get up earlier, take better care of ourselves, get involved in our communities, and take time to think about what our place is on this planet.

Our faith, denomination, religion if you can stomach that word, is based around seven principles. I can usually recite 4 of those 7 without much trouble. I go back and forth between the adult's version with complicated words and concepts and the kid's version, which boils these ideas down to something easier to digest. "To affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person" becomes “every person is important”. I like that. It makes sense to me. It makes sense to the kids too, as one day in the car I was trying to explain something to my nine-year-old son using the principles, and I was getting hung up on them. He rattled all 7 off for me quite readily, and I am pretty sure he understands the concepts behind the words. He’s not my UU guinea pig, but he shows me often that what we do here works. We try to create a safe place where our kids can come have a good experience with like-minded people of all ages, and if they learn something about Unitarian Universalism on their journey here, that is gravy.

So we are pretty sure we can provide a good experience for them here on our own property, but what about in the larger world? In the prelude, Five for Fighting (which is really just one guy – not five) sings about the chance to start over and build a new world.

Got a package full of Wishes
A Time machine, a Magic Wand
A Globe made out of Gold

No Instructions or Commandments
Laws of Gravity or
Indecisions to uphold.

What kind of world do you want?
Think Anything
Let's start at the start
Build a masterpiece
Be careful what you wish for
History starts now...

Our history is being written as we speak. Someday when I have the honor and the need to sit in one of our cushy chairs, I hope a few of these kids are the people standing here, sharing their thoughts with us, telling their stories of how Unitarian Universalism has shaped how they function in this world. Our 7 principles may have changed by then. They really aren't very old – having been written and adopted in my lifetime. Our kids will sing hymns, possibly from these very hymnals, really knowing what it means to be gentle, angry people. Hopefully they will harness that gentle anger and be activists as so many of our adults are, passionately defending the rights of those who often can’t speak for themselves. They will work with coalitions, and alliances, and associations, and they will be Unitarian Universalists while they do this work. And if they aren’t, if they become, gasp, Methodists or Episcopalians, or pagans or whatevers or nothings, they will still have the knowledge and experience of having learned that this was a community that cared for them and expected them to make change happen during their tenure on this planet.

During yesterday’s workshop on change, there were the familiar faces of members and friends of the Fellowship who were able to give of their time to learn skills that will help us thru these challenging times of rapid change. Many were the faces that are seen at nearly every workshop or task force or committee meeting that goes on around here. She’s preaching to the choir I kept thinking, about S____ B____, our workshop facilitator. She’s preaching to the choir. I kept thinking about that phrase and what I think it means. I think it means that you’re telling a story that the listeners are already familiar with, and one that they agree with as well. You’re convincing people of something that they already are convinced of, you’re being redundant which can be annoying. It makes it sound like it is a negative thing. I imagined myself as the choir, and I decided that sometimes I rather enjoy hearing things that I already agree with. I don’t have the mental stamina to be challenged to think about all the things that go on that I don’t agree with in this world every single moment. Occasionally, I just want to sit back and hear something that doesn’t get my hackles all up and make my heart race and cause me to take action. Sometimes I want to watch the news channel that only has heartwarming stories of people doing good, or the one where they report that nothing horrible happened today, people went about their lives, did their jobs, hung out with their friends or families, shared pie together, and lost enemies. This morning, you may feel like the choir. But don’t worry, you will only have to sing one more hymn today, and that won’t be for a few more minutes.

Our preschool and kindergarten class, led by Janet and Lynne , learned about Mary Collson, a young girl from Iowa who had a pet hen. Mary pretended a lot, as children do, and liked to pretend that she was a preacher. She would marry her hen, preach to her hen, she even tried to baptize her hen. Maybe that is where we get the phrase madder than a wet hen. She confided in her hen that when she grew up, she wanted to be a minister, just like her 2 female ministers who also were her school teachers. When Mary became an adult, she did become a minister, she joined the Iowa sisterhood and helped spread liberal religion across the midwest. They also learned about Thomas Starr King, who as a boy wanted to ring the church bells on Sunday morning at the church where his father served as a minister. Thomas grew up to become first a Universalist minister, then served Unitarian churches in the 1800’s. Their last lesson was going to be about our local congregation, and we had several photographs of events that had happened here at the Fellowship over the years. They would’ve talked about how long before they were born, and even a little before their parents were born, a group of people, some of whom are still with us, got together to form our Fellowship. How they worked hard to organize and how they bought this building and worked on it and sweated and hauled water here to drink and went thru the challenges of life together as a community of people who chose to spend time together under the same roof even though they didn’t always agree with what was going to happen under this roof.

Our first thru 3^rd grade class was lead by Susan, Mariyln, and Graham. You may have heard about how they imprisoned your children in a dark dingey cell so that they could learn about Dorthea Dix. After hearing William Ellery Channing preach about the dignity and worth of all people, Dorthea had the words to describe what she had always felt. She worked with Dr. Channing and his friends to improve the living conditions of people in prison for having committed crimes and people who were mentally ill. She convinced lawmakers in Massachusetts to build one of the first mental hospitals in the united states. On ice storm Sunday, they would have learned about Jesus’ teacher Hillel, who summed up Jewish law with a simple statement that reflects our second principle – justice, equity, and compassion in human relations: he said “never do to anyone else the kind of thing that is hateful to you.” I like it when things are straightforward and make sense.

On snow day Sunday they were going to learn about Susan B. Anthony. Now I know this is a generational thing, and many of you may have no idea what I am talking about… but I can’t help but sing the school house rock ditty about Susan B Anthony. We were suffering until suffrage, not a woman could vote no matter what age, but the 19^th Amendment shut down that restrictive rule. Susan didn’t live to see the day when women could finally vote, but her work lives on every day as women continue to challenge unfair treatment in the workplace and society in general.

Marie and John worked with our 4^th – 7^th grade group in January. They learned about Joseph Priestly, an inventor who became a Unitarian minister. Not only did Priestly discover oxygen, he invented carbonated water – thank goodness! Priestly fought in Britain for freedom of religion and eventually fled to the US where he preached in Philadelphia. They also talked about William Ellery Channing, who had a terrifying church experience as a youngster that included hellfire and brimstone and the world coming to a firey end. He was so terrified that when he later became a minister, he preached about a hopeful tomorrow, not one of doom and fear. Our last lesson was going to also be about our local history, with guest speakers from our congregation sharing stories of the early days of formation and how things have changed since then.

If you would like to know more about our local history, I suggests that you see Earl, our archivist, to learn more about what and where.

I’d like to quote one of my favorite philosphers – Uncle Ben. No - Not the rice guy.
Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben. You may know Peter Parker by his work name – Spiderman. Uncle Ben, right before his death, which actually spawned the creation of Spider man as a masked hero, Uncle Ben told Peter to remember, that with great power, comes great responsibility. As people living in the United States, we have an amazing amount of power. As Unitarian Universalists in the United States, we have the vehicle with which we can wield that power. There are many avenues available to us to responsibly use our power. We are blessed to have choices. With our great power comes great responsibility.

Please join me in singing a hymn we do not yet know very well, This hymn is about the choices we may face. Please stand as you are able.

Hymn: #320 The Pen is Greater

Reading: Staci read this:

If prayer worked like magic – if I knew the words that would guarantee prayer's power – I know what I would pray:

Let life be always kind to our children.
Let sorrow not touch them.
Let them be free from fear.
Let them never suffer injustice,
nor the persecutions of the righteous.
Let them not know the pain of failure –
of a project, a love, a hope, or a dream.
Let life be to them gentle and joyful and kind.

If I knew the formula, that's what I'd pray.

But prayer isn't magic, and life will be hard. So I pray for our children – with some hope for this prayer:

May their knowledge of sorrow be tempered with joy.
May their fear be well-balanced by courage and strength.
May the sight of injustice spur them to just actions.
May their failures be teachers, that their spirits may grow.
May they be gentle and joyful and kind.
Then their lives will be magic, and life will be good.

Closing thoughts: I’d like to close with a personal story. I have a good friend who knows about my spiritual beliefs. He knows that I try to good things not because they will get me into the heaven he believes in, but because they are the right thing to do. When I gripe to him about how someone hacked me off at the grocery store, or how my husband purposefully didn’t do the errand I had asked him to take care of, he would remind me with a pat on the arm. "Now now, We are all god’s children." This infuriated me! How dare he pat my arm and tell me something so ridiculous and contrary to my beliefs. After hearing this many times over, which might mean that I complain too much, I began to appreciate the meaning behind his statement. We are all God’s children. Hmmmm. We are all stuck here together and it is really easier to figure out how to deal with that fact than fight it. I now find myself sharing my friend’s simple wisdom with others who are struggling with someone else’s behavior. So before we hear one of my favorite singing groups – The Sesame Street Singers, I leave you with this reminder:

What kind of world do you want?
Think Anything
Let's start at the start
Build a masterpiece
Be careful what you wish for
History starts now...

Postlude: We are all earthlings (this is a great song about differences in creatures that share Earth.)

We are notorious for jumping up and running downstairs to get our coffee, and no one jumped up. Every single person sat still and listened to this song. No one wiggled in his chair - not even the kids. People sat quietly with their hands in their laps and listenend and occasionally giggled, which is great because it is a funny song. Now if I could just fake it and pretend that I was Methodist for a few years, I could go to Saint Paul School of Theology and get my M. Div. for next to free. I just don't think I can pull that off, no matter how good of a performer I become.