Prelude: Jim Pearce “We’ll Build a Land”
Chiming of the Singing Bowl: Rev. Misha Sanders
Words of Welcome and Announcements: John Maynard
Good morning! I am John Maynard, a Worship Associate here at Northwest Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Sandy Springs, Georgia.
Northwest Unitarian Universalist Congregation seeks 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. You can just stay right here when the service ends. There is no need to leave this zoom call, we will begin coffee hour as soon as the postlude is over.
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.
Please join us for a congregational meeting following the service at 11am this morning, and please join us next Sunday during our drive-in out-gathering service. We will be honoring Chloe Morgen who will be bridging this year.
Chrissy Haddad will now sing, “Be Ours A Religion.”
Music: Chrissy Haddad “Be Ours a Religion”
Call to Worship: Rev. Misha Sanders
By Jane E Mauldin
“For our community gathered here, for the spirit that called us together and drew us to this place:
We give thanks this day.
For moments we have shared with others; for times when we have reached out across barriers of distance and fear; for times when others have reached out to us; for moments when we have discovered another along our path:
We give thanks this day.
For this community of celebration and growth, introspection and solitude, and for those moments of “that peace which passes all understanding”:
We give thanks this day.
For our gathering together out of distant places; for our weaving together out of many separate selves this hour of celebration and worship:
We give thanks this day.”
Robert Niedermeyer will now light our chalice.
Lighting of the Chalice: Robert Niedermeyer
The Great Teachers in Life
By Jason Cook
We seekers are on a quest: A quest to discover truth and meaning. Sometimes we think we’ve found it— Wrapped up, glimmering with newness Straight off the intellectual assembly line. All the answers right here for us And others, if they’d only listen.
But truth has a way of coming in disguise, Sometimes wearing rags and sometimes finery, But so often cloaked from our immediate sight. And sometimes, that which we have rejected, That which we have let go of Or decided was only for others But not us— Can be our teacher. Let our time of worship be an acknowledgment Of the never ending journey toward truth and meaning, And our appreciation of those we learn from along the way.
Story Wisdom: Adia Fields-Udofia Because I Had a Teacher
Reading: John Maynard
To be of use
By Marge PiercyThe people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half-submerged balls.
I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.
I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.
The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.
And now music by Cameron Moore singing, May Your Life Be As A Song.
Interlude: Cameron Moore “May Your Life Be As A Song”
Joys and Sorrows: Valerie Johnson
Good morning. I’m Valerie Johnson, a member of the Care Corps, and I am here to bring you the joys and sorrows this morning. I invite you now, those of you who have joys and sorrows or any news you would like to share with our congregation, please go to the chat box at the bottom of your screen and enter them there. We want to know how you are doing.
Joys and sorrows is our time in this space to honor sacred moments and milestones. For our ritual, we have water and river stones. The water in our bowl is a precious natural resource. We use it sparingly, reminding us of the preciousness of each life and its unique journey. Smooth and heavy in our hands, the river stones symbolize life’s pleasures and times of ease as well as life’s burdens and times of heaviness.
Please keep in mind those in our congregation who are ill, hospitalized or recovering, as well as those grieving a loss. Your prayers, healing thoughts, cards and emails are welcome.
Penny Raney’s partner, John Wienert, passed away on May 8th after a long illness following a fall last September. Please keep Penny and John’s families in your thoughts and prayers. Don Langham, a founding member of Northwest, passed away on May 11th at the age of 90. Please keep his son Peter, daughter Marcia, and their families in mind in the days to come. A stone of concern for each.
We have a joy to share this week. Allison and Brian Williams have a beautiful new baby girl named Wren. This is also the first grandchild of Kay and Harry Trendell. Welcome to baby Wren and congratulations to her parents and grandparents. A stone of joy for the Williamses and the Trendells.
And we have two birthdays to celebrate this week.
Deb Andrews-Gautney 05/23 Today
Shelley Hartnett 05/29 Next Friday
A Happy birthday to each of you and a stone of joy for each.
Prayer and Meditation: Valerie Johnson
Please join me in the spirit of prayer or meditation.
Love is the spirit of this church
and service is it’s law.
This is our great covenant;
to dwell together in peace,
to seek the truth in love,
and to help one another.
Because caring is a calling and
all of us are called.
May it be so.
The Brooklyn New York UU Virtual Choir under the direction of Adam and Matt Podd will now sing, How Can I Keep From Singing.
Music Interlude: NYC Virtual Choir “How Can I Keep From Singing”
Sermon: Rev. Misha Sanders
Way back in the Before Times… on the week before Thanksgiving, in the fall of 2019… I told you all that my favorite movie of all time is ‘What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?”
And if there’s one thing I love almost as much as watching my favorite movie over and over, it’s telling you about it again. So here’s a little bit of what I told you back in the pre-expansion NWUUC sanctuary on that long ago and far away day during in-person church:
It came out in late 1993, this excellent movie, and starred a young Johnny Depp as Gilbert Grape, but the show was completely stolen by the character of Arnie, Gilbert’s younger, mentally-challenged brother, played superbly by a young, virtually unknown actor named Leonardo DiCaprio. Mr. DiCaprio went on to be nominated for both an Oscar and a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Arnie Grape the next year, where he was robbed. Since this is the one movie in the world -besides Aladdin- that I can pretty much quote from beginning to end, I could talk all day about it’s brilliance, which I will not do, although it is a masterpiece of cinema for which I give thanks. I will just point us to one brilliant scene near the end of the movie, in which our star, Gilbert (Johnny Depp’s character) is having an emotional goodbye with the woman he loves, who is moving along on her epic RV roadtrip with her grandmother, and has no real say in the matter of leaving, although she and Gilbert have fallen madly in love. They kiss in the late afternoon sunlight, the wind romantically blowing the willow and the pond behind them, as soft dreamy music plays. And then Gilbert, a reticent character throughout the film, looks shyly into her eyes and says, “I don’t know what to say.” There is a moment of pause, and then the camera pans out just slightly to reveal that in the background near the willow, never very far away from Gilbert as is always the case, stands Arnie, in his Burger Barn visor, and he says very loudly, “SAY THANK YOU, GILBERT! SAY THANK YOU!”
Now, I cannot say whether or not the writer of this film’s overarching point was gratitude, but I really do not think it was. The film is so much more complex than that. There is tragedy, hopelessness, death, anger, infidelity, shame, addiction, abandonment, loss of love, and all the yearning and longing of the broken and resilient human spirit in this film which I may have mentioned is the best movie ever. But the moment when it has nearly all been said and done, and more loss is inevitably and is obviously on the visible horizon, a wise Arnie Grape knows that when there’s not much else to say, it is usually a pretty good time to say thank you.
By the time Gilbert is at a loss for words when saying goodbye to Becky, he has really lost everything. I’m sorry for the spoilers, but this came out in 1993, and I think there’s a statute of limitations on spoilers that exonerates me here, so I’ll just say a few vague things. Gilbert has lost a romantic partner, both parents, a brother, several job opportunities, his home, and most of his earthly belongings. And it is Arnie – who from the beginning has been the one to say out loud what everyone else is thinking but is too polite to say – it is Arnie who recognizes that there is something about this moment of nothing left to lose that means utter freedom, and is as good a reason as any to just say thank you.
“Say Thank You, Gilbert” Rev. Misha Sanders
I don’t know what to say.
Say thank you, Misha. Say thank you.
I don’t know what to say about our staff who have come through in this strange year.
Dr. Philip Rogers, our Director of Music has held our choir together and provided music from within and outside our congregation for FIFTEEN MONTHS of online worship. Music directors are not meant to be viewed from inside a screen for fifteen months, and yet here we are, and what a superb job this man has done in engaging us each week, in new ways and in old. Dr. Philip Rogers, thank you.
I hope that as we begin to come back together gradually, many of you will thank Dr. Philip by joining our choir, the Voices of Northwest. In-person rehearsals have begun. We’d love to welcome you. If choir is not your thing, but you can help with music in any other way, please do contact Dr. Philip. He would be thrilled to hear from you!
Adia Fields-Udofia, our Director of Religious Education, has kept up offerings of RE experiences, kept up frequent communication with our families when it was not easy to do so, when families are exhausted just thinking about one more moment of screen time for their children. With grace and humor, Miss Adia has adapted, as she has also provided us with relevant stories each week which have delighted our grown-ups in our worship services just as much as our kids. Miss Adia, thank you.
I hope that you will consider thanking Miss Adia by volunteering to help out on our Religious Education program this fall. Our RE hour will be separate from our worship time this coming year, which is new, and will be a great chance for some of you to help out as a teacher, a playground supervisor, a child care provider, or other creative ways… while not requiring that you miss worship! This is exciting! Miss Adia would love to hear from you!
Our sexton, Kevin Coleman, does his work quietly in the background of our activities, and has continued to do so during this strange time while most of us are never in-person on our campus. The work of cleaning and maintaining is ongoing, and Kevin has been there faithfully. We look forward to seeing Kevin much more in the fall. Kevin, thank you.
And it is completely appropriate to mention Jim Pearce, who we look forward to officially welcoming back this fall from a much-too-long furlough as our pianist. We still hear his artistry nearly every week in our prelude and postlude, and sometimes in other elements of our worship. I am thankful for your patience with us as we struggle to do the right thing with our resources in this strange time, Jim. Jim Pearce, thank you.
Similarly, we cannot WAIT to have our child care room open once again so that we can properly thank Nancy Johnson for sticking with us in love while on furlough from her staff position. We will rejoice in welcoming you back, Nancy, although you have never truly left us anyway, showing up every single week to Zoom worship and coffee hour, with your bright spirit and open heart. Nancy, thank you.
And to our affiliated community minister, Rev. Joan Davis, my dear friend and colleague, there are some days when I can only do my job because of how well you do yours. Rev. Joan has led our Care Corps through the strangest of all possible times to do pastoral care work, and she has done it with grace, love and compassion every step of the way. Rev. Joan… thank you.
This litany of names I will continue right now is really important.
Ken Patton said, “We arrive out of many singular rooms, walking over the branching streets. We come to be assured that brothers and sisters surround us, to restore their images on our eyes. We enlarge our voices in common speaking and singing. We try again that solitude found in the midst of those who with us seek their hidden reckonings. Our eyes reclaim the remembered faces; their voices stir the surrounding air. The warmth of their hands assures us, and the gladness of our spoken names. This is the reason of cities, of homes, of assemblies in the houses of worship. It is good to be with one another.”
And I have thought of that common call to worship many times this past week, especially the line about “the gladness of our spoken names.” It is good that we speak each other’s names.
On this final live Zoom worship service, that is exactly what we will do.
I have often said and heard it said, “If I start naming names, surely I will forget someone, and I don’t want to do that, so I won’t even start.” Yeah, sometimes that’s how it is, and a general blanket thank you is good enough. But that’s not always good enough, and so I am going to give it my best shot at getting it right. When I get it wrong, I trust you all to place names in the chat box and I will try to interact with your participation.
Board of Trustees… you have been a source of bragging by your minister among my colleagues all year long, and I couldn’t be more grateful for you and your mission-driven hearts, and your bold, loving actions on behalf of our beloved community. Board President, Lil Woolf, thank you for leading us so well. There is no one I would rather have had by my side, and we know what a hard year it has been to go about the business of guiding a church community. You have done it excellently. Lil, Thank you.
And to the rest of our board:
President Elect – Lynne Dale
Finance Trustee – Pam Freeman
Secretary – Sandy Davis
Trustee at Large – Larry Wallis
Trustee at Large – Chloe Morgen
Trustee at Large and Financial Trustee in training– Grier Page
Imm. Past President – David Stewart
Board, you were asked to take on a ridiculous task during a global pandemic. And you rocked it. Thank you.
Here are other committees in this congregation and the capable, wonderful people who have led them:
Adult Learning
Marilyn Matlock & Sally Mitchell
Thank you.
Care Corps
Rev. Joan Davis, Linton Hopkins, Karen Edmonds, Valerie Johnson, Maria Drinkard, Ashley Fornier-Goodnight, Lil Woolf
Thank you.
Hawk’s Hoop, our Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans Group
Cynthia Flot & Harry Trendell
Thank you.
Our Worship Associates who have served us on Zoom this year have been:
David Morgen, Brian Freeman, Lynne Dale, Jenn Miller, David Stewart, John Maynard, Chloe Morgen, David Niedermeyer, Robert Niedermeyer, Melissa Niedermeyer, Lil Woolf, Hannah Cowart, Liz Martin,Tony Barbagallo and Gwen Kahn. And to all the other worship associates who participated in email chains and meetings, thank you, too. Worship associate team, you are really the best in the business. Thank you.
Keith Lockhart has coordinated our usher teams for our drive-in worships, and that is no small task. Those ushers are: Becki Gregory, Laura Hall, Morning Washburn, Peggy Emery, Linton Hopkins, and Hannah Cowart. Our faithful team of Zoom-church ushers has been: Kristan Wagner, Lil Woolf, David Morgen, Cameron Moore, Liz Martin, and Hannah Cowart. Ushers, thank you for ushing. You ush like nobody’s business, and I love you for it.
Community connections, and small group ministries have been led by Brian Freeman.
Book Groupies
Penny Raney. Thank you.
Communications
Jenn Miller, Cameron Moore, Katy Lockhart, David Morgen
UNIverse Weekly Newsletter
Lil Woolf
Gardens and Spaces
Beryl Grall-Petty, with consistent help from the ever-present gardening guru Anne Bennett and bird-whisperer John McManus.
Thank you.
Justice Team
Dave Zenner
Thank you.
Stewardship
Cameron Moore, Gwen Kahn, & Melissa Niedermeyer
Thank you.
Darrick Alford, Becki Gregory, Laura Hall, Maryanne Erickson, Hannah Cowart
Thank you.
RE Committee
Adia Fields-Udofia, Sandy Davis, Maryanne Erickson, Chrissy Haddad, Gwen Kahn, Melissa Niedermeyer, Grier Page, Thank you.
Musical contributors:
Philip Rogers, Tracy Montgomery, Chrissy Haddad, Cameron Moore, Sally Mitchell, Dail Edwards, Robert Niedermeyer, Bruce Niedermeyer, Larry Helfrich, Anthony Kahn, Jim Pearce
Chalice Lighters:
Davis Family, Chau Family, Miller family, Lockhart family, Page Family, Niedermeyer family, Kahn family, Stewart family, Bush family, Branum-Martin family
RE Virtual Teachers:
Elizabeth Hickman, Sandy Davis, Gwen Khan, Melissa Niedermeyer, Grier Page, Chrissy Haddad, Kester Chau, Jennifer Miller, Jill Benton
Tech support and producers:
David Morgen, Cameron Moore, Lynne Dale, Liz Martin, Hannah Cowart, Kristan Wagner, Russ Martin, Anthony Kahn, Philip Rogers, Larry Wallis
Thank you.
Coffee hour hosts:
Liz Martin, Cameron Moore, Kathy Miller, Kristan Wagner, Lil Woolf.
Committee on Ministry:
Constance Dierickx, David Morgen, Veta Tucker, Elizabeth Hickman.
Thank you.
Leadership Development Committee:
David Stewart, Sally Mitchell. Thank you.
Building Expansion Steering Committee
David Zenner, Constance Dierickx, Kristen Fowks, Larry Wallis.
Thank you.
And because of the awesome work of our Building Expansion Steering Committee, we had a need for this newly-formed and hard-working Aesthetics Committee:
Constance Dierickx, Kristen Fowks, Barbara Dondiego, Kat Benoy, Judy McKinley, Beryl Grall, Pam Zenner
Thank you.
And on that same theme of new exciting things, Toni Page has agreed to lead a new marketing team for our beautiful new space, and has already begun the work!
Thank you!
Friends, I’m not even going to pretend to believe I named everyone who deserves naming.
For example, will you all help me in the chat box right now by naming yourself or someone you know who helped build our beautiful new patio? John Hagler, David Stewart, Dominick, Gabe, and Sebastian Stewart, Larry Wallis, Sydney and Anthony Kahn, Toni and Grier Page, Lil Woolf, Joan Davis, John Maynard, Allen Rider, Morning Washburn and so many more. I am watching chat to speak aloud names you all add.
And I will read aloud names from the chat of people I have missed naming in other areas of the life of our congregation, as well.
I welcome your additions and corrections because, beloveds, I will name that the past few weeks my brain has been a little foggy from injury recovery, so I am counting on our collective memory right now.
It matters that we take this time to lift each other’s names.
It matters because although saying thank you usually feels inadequate, sometimes it’s the best we can do, and it is almost always an appropriate response to deep gratitude.
And that is what we create here for and with each other. Deep gratitude for how we lift each other up and hold each other together, through the good the bad and the 2020-2021.
Say thank you, Misha.
Thank you.
Oh we give thanks for this precious day.
For all gathered here, and those far away.
For this time we share with love and care.
Oh we give thanks, for this precious day.
Introduction of Offering: John Maynard
We give to remind ourselves how many gifts we have to offer.
We give to remember that we are part of something bigger than ourselves.
We give with the faith that, together, we have enough.
We give to say yes to something we value.
With our gifts, freely given, may we say yes to the values of our faith. Our offering will now be given and gratefully received.
Offering: Offering Breeze
Dedication of the Offering: John Maynard
Now please join me in the dedication of our offering. To the work of this congregation, which is weaving a tapestry of love and action, we dedicate our offerings and the best of who we are.
Benediction: Rev. Misha Sanders
Choose to Bless the World
By Rebecca ParkerYour gifts—whatever you discover them to be—
can be used to bless or curse the world.
What will you do with your gifts?
Choose to bless the world.
The choice to bless the world is more than an act of will,
a moving forward into the world
with the intention to do good.
It is an act of recognition,
a confession of surprise,
a grateful acknowledgment
that in the midst of a broken world
unspeakable beauty, grace and mystery abide.
There is an embrace of kindness
that encompasses all life, even yours.
And while there is injustice, anesthetization, or evil
there moves a holy disturbance,
a benevolent rage,
a revolutionary love,
protesting, urging, insisting
that which is sacred will not be defiled.
Those who bless the world live their life
as a gesture of thanks
for this beauty
and this rage.
The choice to bless the world can take you into solitude
to search for the sources
of power and grace;
native wisdom, healing, and liberation.
More, the choice will draw you into community,
the endeavor shared,
the heritage passed on,
the companionship of struggle,
the importance of keeping faith,
the life of ritual and praise,
the comfort of human friendship,
the company of earth
the chorus of life welcoming you.
None of us alone can save the world.
Together—that is another possibility, waiting.
Postlude: Jim Pearce “Go Lifted Up”