Prelude Jim Pearce
Chiming of the Singing Bowl Misha
Words of Welcome and Announcements Anthony Kahn
Good morning! My name is Anthony Kahn, and I am one of your Worship Associates today.
Welcome to online worship with Northwest Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Sandy Springs, Georgia. We here at NWUUC seek to create loving community, inspire joy and spiritual growth, and support courageous action. All are welcome, as together we journey towards justice and equity by learning, caring, and acting together.
We especially welcome any newcomers and visitors we have today. I hope you’ll join us after worship for coffee hour… from the comfort of your own homes. The link to our Coffee Hour Zoom room will appear in the chat box toward the end of worship, and we will remind you about it again there. When you click the link to join coffee hour, please remember that the password is “coffee”. Again, you will be reminded in the chat, toward the end of our worship service.
But wait, there’s more! At 1 PM, our CUUPS group will be hosting a Beltane ritual, and all are invited to come and be a part of this celebration of Spring. A link to THAT Zoom room will also be listed in the chat.
If you haven’t already, now is a great time to grab whatever materials you’ll need to light your own chalice if you’d like that to be part of your worship experience today.
As always, kindly set your phones to worship mode; we won’t know, but I think you might enjoy the hour free from distractions. And feel free to check in on your social media of choice to let your friends and family know about this place of caring you’ve found today. Our congregation is an exciting place to be, and we love it when you share the good news!
And although we cannot be physically together to greet each other today with hugs, high-fives, smiles, and words of love, we are all together in spirit and each and every one of us is welcome.
And now my fellow Worship Associate, Joy Hickman, will call us to worship.
Call to Worship Joy Hickman
Lighting our Chalice today is Alida LeBron.
We light this Chalice as a symbol of our Unitarian Universalist faith.
We recognize and honor the hands that came before us that had the strength to
seek their own truth.
We celebrate our own two hands that carry on the work of love and justice in the world that is
our heritage
And for those to come… in their hands… we will leave our legacy so that they may build on it
and continue to make the world a better place.
Lighting of the Chalice Alida
Story Wisdom Jay Kahn
Thank you to our very own talented Jay Kahn for creating that video story for us! And in the spirit of Miss Adia’s Wondering Questions’ she often shares with us…I wonder.
I wonder what the blue fish might represent to you.
I wonder what the red fish might represent.
I wonder what the person feeding the fish represents?
I wonder if now, when we have more time to be at home and think deeply about things, if these parts of the story might represent our thoughts, and how the thoughts we feed are the ones that take over the pond, our mind?
But that’s just what I think this story might mean for me. What about you?
For now, our Sydney Kahn has a reflection for us about HER thoughts right now.
Reflection Sydney Kahn
About a year ago, my days were packed. I had early morning meetings into a full day of school then band or winterguard or a club meeting and homework. I never got a metaphorical breath of fresh air and I loved it. I thrived under the go, go, go kind of schedule to the point where I planned out my free time to hold its own designated activities. I will watch one show, clean the house, then work on my research paper, then go see my friends and we’re going to do this and this and you get the point.
Clearly, I hated being idle. I filled my time for a reason, because if I didn’t accomplish something in my day, I felt unproductive; I still feel that way. I don’t like “doing nothing” which is why I chose to do everything. But now that everything is gone. No band, no guard, no work, no elaborate outings. No banquets, no spring concert, no prom, no graduation. A lot of people feel sorry for the senior class of 2020, and I get it. It does suck. But what hurts most for me is the sheer nothingness that it my day to day life now. My rabbit-fast days are now more like the tortoise. And most of the whole world is that way. Idle humans can do wonderful things, though. Cities applauding their essential workers. Police performing for apartment tenants from the street. People holding social distancing block parties to feel some sort of closeness.
But these can’t possibly replace the routines we once had. Any of that is maybe an hour or two tops. The rest of the time is just. There. At first, I tried to fill every second like I did before and got frustrated when I inevitably failed or lost motivation. But after days of really wanting this book to be interesting or baking too many cookies, I started to slow down. I noticed the flowers blooming outside and the wind whistling outside my window. I found ways to make the house a more pleasant place to be, so I could just be there. If all I accomplish in a day is my schoolwork. That’s okay. Having no obligations is something to get used to, but I think it’s freed up my way of thinking. I’m learning to relax into not really doing anything and being okay with it rather than feeling guilty as I would’ve felt a year ago. I’m finding my own moments of joy in moving my body, in theoretically painting some pinecones, in making new friends over the Penn Facebook page. I think slowing down is a good thing. Gives us a chance to pause our hectic lives to appreciate and create the beauty inside and around us.
Our friend Robert Niedermeyer created this beautiful music for us today. I invite you to settle into the next few minutes and listen.
Music Robert Niedermeyer video
Joys and Sorrows Chloe Morgen
Prayer and Meditation Chloe Morgen
By Michael R Leduc
May we look with gratitude upon this day, for the beauty of the world, for the first radiance of dawn and the last smoldering glow of sunset.
Let us be thankful for physical joys, for hills to climb and hard work to do, for music that lifts our hearts in one breath, for the hand-clasp of a friend, and for the gracious loveliness of children who remind us of the wonders of life.
May we be appreciative above all for the concern and love of those around us; for the exceeding bliss of the touch of the holy which suddenly awakens our drowsy souls to the blessed awareness of the divine within us and within others.
For all of this, and for the countless other blessings present in our lives, let us be grateful. Amen.
Music Decemberists video
Sermon Rev. Misha Sanders
This is my worship calendar. It is mostly now pages to go straight into the recycling bin because of that thing they say about the best-laid plans being…I don’t know… something about rodents and John Steinbeck, but I don’t care. The point is, plans change.
Two Sundays ago was to have been our celebration of our Coming of Age youth. We were to celebrate and hear the credo statements of Dev, Shea, Lily, Anthony, Caroline, Jaiya, and Robert. We offered to create a virtual Coming of Age worship with them and they said a hail and hearty No Thank you. And good for them. They know they deserve their in-person Coming of Age experience, and they shall have it; just later than planned.
And today. Today was to be the day we celebrate the bridging of Sydney Kahn from high school youth to college-bound young adult. And Sydney, we do celebrate you today, but like the Coming of Age Youth, Sydney also chose to postpone the larger celebration until we can be together face to face. And so we will.
Currently two couples and I are planning weddings that will happen with sensible social distancing and without the fanfare they deserve.
We have already in the past few weeks, in this community, laid beloved members to rest without memorials to say our goodbyes.
And you know what, beloveds, I’m going to say a very theological, pator-y, chaplain-y thing now, so feel free to take notes and quote me on this: THIS SUCKS.
That’s it. This sucks. During a recent Committee on Ministry meeting I shared via Zoom, of course, one of our wonderful members reminded ME, that it is perfectly normal right now to just say everything sucks and take a break from trying to find the silver lining. And that is true.
But…I can’t just completely stop there, because of what is happening here in this very worship service. Let me let you in on a little bit of how this worship sausage was made.
Our High School and Middle School youth met via Zoom a few weeks ago to plan this worship. Since our planned themes and topics were out the window anyway, THEY picked the topic. They wanted to talk about resilience.
And you know, we haven’t actually SAID the word resilience much in this service today, if even at all, but resilience in action is what we have witnessed in every element of this worship.
What these precious teens are sharing with us from their hearts today is their gift to this beloved community that they love, and they are doing it with humor, grace, honesty, and by giving a TON of their time and talent to the endeavor. And please stick with us, because the gifts of their talents are most assuredly NOT over yet today.
Do you have any cornstarch in your house? If you do, maybe this is something you can try later today, or sometime soon. I’m going to make some Oobleck. Have you ever made oobleck? It’s so super simple, that even I can make it and not mess up, usually. Sometimes, anyway.
All it takes is cornstarch and water. That’s all. However much cornstarch you use (I’m using one cup) you just mix in HALF that much water. So, a half a cup of water for my Oobleck. You can add some food coloring if you like, but I didn’t have any of that today for my Oobleck. And that’s okay. In Quarantine Kitchen, we use what we have, right?
When you mix cornstarch and water together it creates something really interesting.
I could slowly put my hand throught this mixture all day long and just feel the silky mess running through my fingers and let you watch it drip into the bowl, and while it kinda feels nice for me to do that, it would probably get boring really fast. Maybe it already did. It just stays soft messy, watery, sorta-sticky goop. That’s all. But not really. Because what makes it react DIFFERENTLY than just continuing to be soft watery messy goop, is the force of the impact I use to touch it.
It’s called a non-Newtonian fluid. That means a lot of things, but some of them are that the solid substance…the cornstarch…does not dissolve in the water. It stays intact and just cooperates with the water and lets the droplets of water flow intermixed with the granules of starch. When things are slow and easy. But when a sudden force impacts the mixture, the water droplets get pushed aside, and the starch grains jam up against each other and refuse to move for my fingers. It becomes solid. I can remove my hand, and slowly try again, and the water droplets are back in the mix making a gooey mess, and the next instant I can smack the mixture hard, and it solidifies right under and around my fingers.
It’s pretty cool, and I totally think you should try it. Yes, you. This is an all-age activity and all-age doesn’t mean just for kids. So, maybe you can make some Oobleck this afternoon. Maybe you can make some during coffee hour with each other.
Are you picking up what I’m laying down here?
Our youth are resilient and creative, and generous and loving, and make no mistake, they are also Oobleck. They stick together and don’t let unexpected impact tear them apart, and they just do what needs to be done. Whether as a youth group, in their families, in their school circles which have been so unfairly disrupted. They are showing us how to Oobleck. They’re better at it than a lot of us. And where did they learn that? Maybe you can remember a time when you were a pretty great force of Oobleck yourself. Because our kids and our teens learn the ways of Oobleck from those who have paved the Ooblecky way. Maybe that’s you. Maybe that’s others in this beloved community who have gone before us. Maybe it’s people from outside our beloved community from whose influence we are now the beneficiaries.
Wherever it comes from, I sure am thankful for it. I am a gooey, falling apart mess sometimes until I remember that my true nature is a lot more Ooblecky than that mess. I am so grateful when someone reminds me.
Beloveds, we can do hard things.
We. Can. Do. Hard. Things. We are resilient. We are creative. We are loving, brave, funny, messy bowls of Oobleck. And that is a beautiful thing to be.
“We are going. Heaven knows where we are going. But we know within. And we will get there. Heaven knows how we will get there. But we know we will. It will be hard, we know! And he road will be muddy and rough, but we’ll get there. Heaven knows how we will get there. But we know we will. Woyaya. Woyaya. Woyaya. Woyaya.
Now. Our own David Niedermeyer has a Stewardship Moment for us, and I promise you, you do not want to miss it. David, it’s all yours, friend.
Stewardship Moment David Niedermeyer
Northwest UUC is not the building that we use, it is the community that is what makes it what it is. And the community I have seen here is one that cares for others, will accept others for who they are, and will do their best to make the best decisions possible. It is because of these things that I trust this community, and I hope you will show how much you trust and appreciate this community by donating even just a little bit. Because if everyone gives just a little, then just like individuals in a community it will amount to something big.
Offering Rev. Misha Sanders
Thank you, David. I don’t have anything more to add, except to encourage you to text Donate to Give, that information will be shared on the upcoming slides. Or give in whatever form works best for you. I encourage you to speand the next five minutes breathing deeply and appreciating the amazing music that Anthony Kahn has created for us to accompany our offering slides today.
Benediction Rev. Misha Sanders
Thank you, Anthony Kahm, for your gift of music to us today.
Thank you, beloved Northwest friends and family, for your financial gifts to this community.
Thank you, Middle and High School Youth Worship Associates, for ministering to us all today.
Our words of benediction are by Rev. Karen Bellavance-Grace.
“In praise of computers and routers and servers and all the hardware and software that can help us build our connectedness;
in praise of all the gremlins that live in the machines and bug our programs and help us to practice patience;
in praise of the trolls who dwell in the internet and push us to live out our first principle in real time;
in praise of power surges that eat our data and devour our final draft, for giving us the opportunity to rebuild and remember that our work is as much transient as it is transcendent;
in praise of the Error: Page Not Found, which reminds us that with some people we need to find new paths to make connections, because not everyone uses the same keywords;
in praise of servers that drop our connections which reminds us that all who serve have built-in limits to their capacity;
in praise of communication and connection, whether it is face-to-face or Zoom-to-Zoom,
We always risk errors, hurt feelings and misunderstanding,
But it is also, always, worth the risk.”
Thank you for being resilient and playing and learning and loving with us today. I love you! See you in Coffee Hour, friends!
Postlude Jim Pearce
Text number: Text to 73256: DonateNWUUC