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Gathering Music (Mary Bopp) Welcome (Emmy Galbraith) Announcements (Rev. Josh Pawelek) Centering Prelude "My Heart is Open" by Mary Bopp Chalice Lighting (The Gilbert Family) Opening Hymn #346 "Come Sing a Song With Me" by Carolyn McDade Come, sing a song with me, come, sing a song with me, come, sing a song with me, that I might know your mind. (Chorus) And I'll bring you hope when hope is hard to find, and I'll bring a song of love and a rose in the wintertime. Come, dream a dream with me, come, dream a dream with me, come, dream a dream with me, that I might know your mind. (Chorus) Come, walk in rain with me, come, walk in rain with me, come, walk in rain with me, that I might know your mind. (Chorus) Come, share a rose with me, come, share a rose with me, come, share a rose with me, that I might know your mind. (Chorus) Reflection: "Gifts" Slideshow Music "You Are My Sunshine" Lucy Diamond, piano Joys and Concerns Musical Interlude Offering During the month of June--Pride Month in the United States--the recipient of our community outreach offering will be Trans Voice and Visibility-365. Managed by our friends at the Metropolitan Community Church of Hartford, TV-365 is a ministry dedicated to uplifting and supporting the wellbeing of transgender individuals in Connecticut by providing basic human needs, information and referral, service coordination and support to individuals. Their emphasis is on those most under-served, neglected, victimized and oppressed. This includes, but is not limited to, transgender women and men of color, those with disabilities, youth and elderly, immigrants (documented and undocumented), low income and victims of crime. Offering Music "Awaken Me" by Abigail McBride "Amazed" by Linda Hirschorn "Gratitude" by Ina Medley performed by members of The Manchester Women's Sacred Singing Circle Recognition and Gratitude Musical Interlude Bridging Incoming 6th graders: Simone Ford, Kaidee Holian-Borgnis, Eliot Garcia, Maverick Schlechtweg Incoming 9th graders: Genevieve Bender, Margeaux Ford, Cedric Garcia, Charlotte Gonzalez, Claude Gonzalez, Cole Holian-Borgnis, Olivia O'Brien-Cohen, London Fludd Graduating 12th graders: Graham Bornhost, Max Pawelek Words from the Minister Closing Hymn #123 "Spirit of Life" by Carolyn McDade Spirit of Life, come unto me. Sing in my heart all the stirrings of compassion. Blow in the wind, rise in the sea; move in the hand, giving life the shape of justice. Roots hold me close; wings set me free; Spirit of Life, come to me, come to me. Extinguishing the Chalice Closing Circle May faith in the spirit of life, and hope for the community of Earth, and love of the light in each other, be ours now and in all the days to come.

Friends: this piece Dorothy has just played, “Deep River,” from the late 19th-/early 20th-century British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, is based on the African American spiritual of the same name. Taylor, who was the mixed-race child of a Sierra Leonean father and a British mother, was fascinated by the music of the African diaspora. One notable experience was his attendance at a London performance of the Fiske Jubilee Singers, a world-renowned African American a capella group from the historically black Fiske University in Nashville, TN.[1] Taylor was particularly moved by their rendition of “Deep River.” He became well-known in European classical music circles for his compositions based on both African-American spirituals and traditional African-continent music. This piece, "Deep River," is part of a larger collection he published in 1905.[2] “Deep River,” which like so many black spirituals emerged out of the crucible of American slavery, is a powerfully hopeful song—hope for freedom, deliverance, justice, acceptance and peace in this life and in the life to come: Deep River, my home is over Jordan; / Deep River, my home is over Jordan; / O don’t you want to go to that Gospel Feast / That Promised Land where all is Peace? / Deep River, I want to cross over into camp ground. I have only a cursory understanding of the place “Deep River” holds in African American culture. It has worked its way into books and book titles. It has worked its way into jazz. It has worked its way into poetry, perhaps most famously echoing through Langston Hughes’ poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” which he wrote in 1920 at age seventeen, and which launched his career as a towering American poet. You can find it in our hymnal as “I’ve Known Rivers.” I’ve known rivers ancient as the / world and older than the flow of / human blood in human veins. / My soul has grown deep like the rivers. [3] In his 1945 commentary on the spirituals (later published under the title Deep River) the Christian mystic, Howard Thurman, said this in reference to the song: “The fascination of the flowing stream is a constant source of wonder and beauty to the sensitive mind. It was ever thus. The restless movement, the hurrying, ever-changing stream has ever been the bearer of the longings and yearnings of [humanity] for land beyond the horizon where dreams are fulfilled and deepest desires satisfied.”[4] Thurman understood the spirituals as emerging out of the unique experience of black people in America, but the goal of his commentaries on the spirituals was not to name what is uniquely black about them, but to name what is uniquely human about them, to find universal truths within them. Our ministry theme for June is ‘renewal.’ This is my sermon on renewal. I initially titled it “The Renewal Imperative,” thinking that with so much happening in the world that creates stress, anxiety, fear and despair—so much happening that keeps us up at night, tires us out, wears us down, divides us even from each other—renewal seems, well, imperative. Let’s take time to renew ourselves. Let’s take time for regeneration, for restoration. But the more I studied Howard Thurman’s commentary on “Deep River,” the more the word “imperative” didn’t sound right. It sounded like a mandate, an order: “Thou shalt renew Thyself!” Yet another task to add to the list, and thus another source of stress and anxiety. 10:00 meet with Mary. 11:00 meet with Emmy. 12:00, eat lunch. 12:30, renewal. 1:00, Emergency Preparedness Team. After reading Thurman, I decided to give the sermon a more prayerful title: “May the River Renew Us.” Thurman counsels us “to think of life as being like a river.” He calls this “a full and creative analogy.”[5] A river flows from a source to a destination. Ask yourself: what is your source? What is your destination? These are spiritual questions with spiritual answers. For Thurman, as a Christian mystic, the source and the destination are, paradoxically, the same: God, which for the river is the sea. He says, “All the waters of all the earth come from the sea. Paradox of paradoxes: that out of which the river comes is that into which the river goes. The goal and the source of the river are the same! From gurgling spring to giant waterfall; from the morning dew to the torrential down-pour; from simple creeks to mighty river—the source and the goal are the same: the sea. Life is like that! The goal of life is God. The source of life is God.”[6] That’s his theological language, which I find to be wonderfully aligned with our Universalist heritage. I invite you to translate his language into whatever language speaks to you; and I’ll offer this translation which speaks to me: All life, if we go back far enough, has a common source, which is sacred, holy, beautiful, powerful, awesome and, though increasingly knowable through scientific theory, experimentation and discovery, remains mysterious. And all life flows toward a common destination, which is sacred, holy, beautiful, powerful, awesome and, though also increasingly knowable through scientific theory, experimentation and discovery, also remains mysterious. Between the source and the destination, our small yet sacred, holy, beautiful, powerful, awesome lives flow. May the River Renew Us. The analogy deepens. Thurman reminds us there are times when the river floods—times when we become overwhelmed, when we may face imminent danger, when our survival may be at stake, when we need to get to higher ground. Our reptilian, limbic system takes over—fight, flight, freeze. In such moments we’re not resting in thoughts of our sacred, holy, beautiful source; we’re not contemplating our sacred, holy, beautiful destination. This is part of life, part of the human condition. There are also times when the river runs dry—our energy is low, we struggle in our relationships, we’re in a rut, our sense of purpose goes missing, we forget our sacred, holy, beautiful source, we forget our sacred, holy, beautiful destination. This, too, is part of life, part of the human condition. “The time of drought may be seasonal,” writes Thurman, “or it may be specially circumstanced. It is therefore of greatest importance,” he continues, “to understand its cause, and to discover … what special reserves must be tapped so as to bring flowing fully and freshly the refreshing, life-giving currents. There is perhaps no greater revelation of character than what is revealed by the things to which one appeals for regeneration and restoration!”[7] And I would add renewal. In the wake of a flood, or when your river runs dry, to what do you appeal for renewal? What puts you back in touch with your sacred, holy, beautiful source? What puts you back in touch with your sacred, holy, beautiful destination?” What allows you to re-enter the river, to flow with its life-giving currents, to remember your source and your destination. *** In May I attended a three-day gathering of my Unitarian Universalist clergy study group, the Greenfield Group. Our gathering focused on bringing joy, play and fun more deeply into our lives and our ministries. In preparation we read The Book of Joy, by the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu: Pleasure Activism, by the progressive thought leader, writer and facilitator, adrienne marie brown: and a collection of poems from the 14th century Sufi poet Hafiz called I Heard God Laughing. We listened to joyful music. We watched TED Talks from researchers who study play in children and adults. We each shared a short reflection on our theology of play. But instead of presenting academic papers—our normal mode of interacting—we used the bulk of our time to play together. It was not easy for a group of 25 clergy to let down a guard we didn’t fully realize was up, and sink into play. But we did it. I had a blast. I left feeling renewed. A concept that repeatedly shows up in the psychological literature on play is “flow.” If I have my facts correct, the term was first coined by the Hungarian psychologist, Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi in the early 1990s. In people of all ages, play induces flow, a state in which one is completely immersed in the activity, loses track of time, and is not easily distracted. Of course, this also describes the state achieved through spiritual practice. Meditation, prayer, singing, stretching, journaling, labyrinth-walking, sacred dance, ritual all have the capacity to induce flow. It’s the same with physical activity. It’s the same with creative activity. Further, a significant body of research concludes flow is good for us. It correlates with good physical and mental health, emotional well-being and spiritual aliveness. Flow renews us. This makes me wonder: perhaps the greatest resource we have for deepening our spiritual foundations in adulthood—for getting in touch with our source and our destination—isn’t what we learned as children from the priest, the rabbi, the imam or the minister, isn’t what we learn from church, synagogue, masjid or temple today, but is rather our childhood experience of play, of fun, of joy—all the things that induce flow. Not the rules, the right or wrong answers—certainly not the doctrines and the dogmas—but those experiences of surrendering to the moment, getting lost in a task we enjoy, losing track of time—though I prefer to think of it as entering into a state of timelessness—letting the river take us or, to reference our opening words from the Rev. Manish Mishra-Marzetti, letting the currents hold us and guide us. [8] *** When the flood has receded and it is safe to venture out, may we surrender once again to the river. May the river renew us. In the midst of drought, when our souls feel parched, let us tap our reserves, so that the refreshing waters flow once again. May the river renew us. In times of stress, anxiety, fear and despair, may we learn to move with the currents of the river of life, to trust them. May the river renew us. In challenging times, may we remember the river’s source—the sacred, holy, beautiful powerful, awesome, knowable yet mysterious source. May the river renew us. In difficult times, may we remember the river’s destination—the sacred, holy, beautiful, powerful, awesome knowable yet mysterious destination. May the river renew us. May the arrival of summer—the season of play, fun and joy—renew us. May the words of the poet whose soul has grown deep like the rivers be a gift to us, a gift to all people, a source of renewal. May the deep river music of once enslaved people yearning to be free, yearning for that great gospel feast, for the peace of the promised land be a gift to us, a gift to all people, a source of renewal. May our lives flow. May our lives flow. May our lives flow. May the river renew us. Amen and blessed be. [1] For the history and the current-day activities of the Fiske Jubilee Singers, visit their website at https://fiskjubileesingers.org/. [2] Elkins, Stephanie, “Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s ‘24 Negro Melodies’, January 16, 2024. See: https://www.wpr.org/music/classical-music/samuel-coleridge-taylor. [3] Hughes, Langston, “I’ve Known Rivers” in Singing the Living Tradition (Boston: Beacon Press and the UUA, 1993) #528. [4] Thurman, Howard, Deep River and The Negro Spiritual Speaks of Life and Death (Richmond, IN: Friends United Press, 1975) p. 66. [5] Thurman, Howard, Deep River and The Negro Spiritual Speaks of Life and Death (Richmond, IN: Friends United Press, 1975) p. 66. [6] Thurman, ibid., p. 74. [7] Thurman, ibid., p. 72. [8] Mishra-Marzetti, Manish, “River Call,” in Voices from the Margins (Boston: Skinner House Books, 2012) p. 9.

IMPORTANT PHONE NUMBERS Mental Health, Health, Suicide Prevention and Addiction Resources 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline 9-8-8 - call text or chat if you or someone you know has thoughts about suicide Mobile Crisis 2-1-1 is a statewide, community based and family supportive clinical intervention service for children & adolescents experiencing a behavioral or mental health crisis. Mobile Crisis provides rapid emergency crisis stabilization for children and their families as well as short-term follow-up care and connection to other services. Call 2-1-1 and ask for mobile crisis. A child can receive Mobile Crisis services in: Their home At school At their doctor’s office In the Emergency Department (ED) Any other community setting Arrive within 45 minutes or less Convenient Hours: Mobile hours are 6am-10pm M-F; 1pm-10pm weekends/holidays. Available by phone all other hours https://www.TurningPointCT.org -  Mental Wellness Website for and by CT youth who want to chat, text, talk about young people in recovery from mental health and substance use issues. "We know what it’s like to feel alone, stressed, worried, sad, and angry. We’ve lived through the ups and downs of self-harm, drugs and alcohol, and the struggle to find help." Planned Parenthood of CT https://www.plannedparenthood.org/planned-parenthood-southern-new-england (birth control, STDs, HIV/AIDs testing, reproductive care, abortion https://www.plannedparenthood.org/online-tools/chat 1-800-230-PLAN Toivo - Center for Holistic Healing Hartford, CT Anti-Violence and Safety Resources CT Alliance to End Sexual Violence 24 Hour Hotline: 1-888-999-5545 ENGLISH (Call or Text) 1-888-568-8332 ESPAÑOL CT Coalition Against Domestic Violence (intimate partner violence, family violence) https://www.ctsafeconnect.org/ Help with Basic Needs United Way health and human services hotline 2-1-1 (help with food, child care, housing, fuel, other basic needs) https://www.211ct.org/

Gathering Music “Sarabande” from Keyboard Partita #1 By J.S. Bach Dorothy Bognar, piano Welcome (Rev. Josh Pawelek) Announcements Centering Prelude “Prelude” from Keyboard Partita #1 By J.S. Bach Dorothy Bognar, piano Chalice Lighting and Opening Words “River Call” By Manish Mishra-Marzetti Opening Hymn #1008 “When Our Heart is in a Holy Place” Words and music by Joyce Poley Chorus: When our heart is in a holy place, When our heart is in a holy place, We are bless’d with love and amazing grace, When our heart is in a holy place. When we trust the wisdom in each of us, Ev’ry color ev’ry creed and kind, And we see our faces in each other’s eyes, Then our heart is in a holy place. Chorus When we tell our story from deep inside, And we listen with a loving mind, And we hear our voices in each other’s words, Then our heart is in a holy place. Chorus When we share the silence of sacred space, And the God of our Heart stirs within, And we feel the power of each other’s faith, Then our heart is in a holy place. Chorus New Member Welcome Introductions (Membership Committee co-chairs) The Charge (Minister) As you take up membership in the Unitarian Universalist Society East, I charge you to share with us who you are. Share your creativity, your experiences, your questions, your doubts, your beliefs, and all your discoveries of life's meaning. I charge you to shake us up with your ideas, to stir us up with your conscience, to inspire us with your actions, and to stimulate our hopes with your dreams of what life can be. Congregational Welcome (Congregation) We welcome you as companions in the search for truth and meaning. We invite you to share in our mission of caring for one another, encouraging each other in spiritual growth, working for justice and peace in the wider community, and living in harmony with the earth. We join our gifts with yours, trusting in the power of community to bring freedom, healing, and love. New Member Affirmation (New members) We join the Unitarian Universalist Society East out of a desire and willingness to participate in a liberal religious congregation. We pledge to share our time, energy and gifts; to diligently seek our spiritual truths; and to strengthen the bonds of community. Responsive Hymn “What is this Church?” words adapted from Eugene Sander Music by Jean Sibelius What is this church? A place of love and gladness. Where all may meet, to seek the common good. A source of strength, to face each doubt and sadness. Where every dream, is known and understood. What is this church? Ask those who came before, And found themselves, by crossing through its door. Joys and Concerns Musical Interlude excerpt from Menuet I and II from Keyboard Partita #1 By J.S. Bach Dorothy Bognar, piano Offering During the month of June—Pride Month in the United States—the recipient of our community outreach offering will be Trans Voice and Visibility-365. Managed by our friends at the Metropolitan Community Church of Hartford, TV-365 is a ministry dedicated to uplifting and supporting the wellbeing of transgender individuals in Connecticut by providing basic human needs, information and referral, service coordination and support to individuals. Their emphasis is on those most under-served, neglected, victimized and oppressed.  This includes, but is not limited to, transgender women and men of color, those with disabilities, youth and elderly, immigrants (documented and undocumented), low income and victims of crime.” Offering Music “Deep River” by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Dorothy Bognar, piano Sermon “May the River Renew Us” Rev. Josh Pawelek Closing Hymn #65 “The Sweet June Days” Words by Samuel Longfellow Music: English Melody, arr. by Ralph Vaughan Williams The sweet June days are come again; once more the glad earth yields its golden wealth of rip’ning grain, and breath of clover fields, and deep’ning shade of summer woods, and glow of summer air, and winging thoughts and happy moods of love and joy and prayer. The sweet June days are come again; the birds are on the wing; bright anthems, in their merry strain, unconsciously they sing. Oh, how our cup o’er brims with good these happy summer days; for all the joys of field and wood we lift our song of praise. Extinguishing the Chalice Closing Circle May faith in the spirit of life And hope for the community of earth And love of the light in each other Be ours now, and in all the days to come.

Gathering Music (Mary Bopp) Welcome and Announcements (Rev. Josh Pawelek) Centering Prelude "Rainbow Fantasy" by Harold Arlen arr. Mary Bopp Chalice Lighting and Opening Words "Broken Glass" by Sarah Poutre Opening Hymn #1002 "Comfort Me" by Mimi Bornstein-Doble Comfort me, comfort me, comfort me, oh my soul. Comfort me, comfort me, comfort me, oh my soul. Sing with me, sing with me ... Speak for me, speak for me ... Dance with me, dance with me ... Comfort me ... Free At Last Players: Reflections Joys and Concerns Offering During the month of June--Pride Month in the United States--the recipient of our community outreach offering will be Trans Voice and Visibility-365. Managed by our friends at the Metropolitan Community Church of Hartford, TV-365 is a ministry dedicated to uplifting and supporting the wellbeing of transgender individuals in Connecticut by providing basic human needs, information and referral, service coordination and support to individuals. Their emphasis is on those most under-served, neglected, victimized and oppressed. This includes, but is not limited to, transgender women and men of color, those with disabilities, youth and elderly, immigrants (documented and undocumented), low income and victims of crime. Offering Music "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" music by Harold Arlen, lyrics by Yip Harburg Sandy Johnson, vocals Free At Last Players: "The Purple Brick Road" Closing Hymn #1057 "Go Lifted Up" by Mortimer B. Barron Go lifted up, Love bless your way, moonlight, starlight guide your journey into peace and the brightness of day. Extinguishing the Chalice Closing Circle Free At Last Players: Talk Back

Welcome and Announcements Prelude "The Older I Get" by Alan Jackson performed by Jenn Richard, vocals & guitar Chalice Lighting Call to Worship Hymn #1010 "We Give Thanks" Words & music: Wendy Luella Perkins Oh, we give thanks for this precious day, For all gather'd here, and those far away; For this time (food) we share with love and care, Oh, we give thanks for this precious day. Introduction to Service Speaker #1 Sandy Johnson A Time for Sharing: Introductions, Joys & Concerns Musical Response Speaker #2 Ellen Castaldini Hymn #1007 "There's a River Flowin' in My Soul" Words & music: Rose Sanders There's a river flowin' in my soul. There's a river flowin' in my soul. And it's tellin' me that I'm somebody. There's a river flowin' in my soul. There's a river flowin' in my heart... There's a river flowin' in my mind... Offertory "This Must Be the Place" by Talking Heads performed by Jenn Richard, vocals & guitar Speaker #3 Joe Madar Extinguishing the Chalice Closing Circle May faith in the spirit of life And hope for the community of earth And love of the light in each other Be ours now, and in all the days to come.

Updated May 17, 2024 Do you need Childcare for the meeting? - https://www.uuse.org/post/do-you-need-childcare-for-this-sunday-s-annual-meeting Discernment Letter - https://3ce23514-62b3-4167-a04a-ad0b131b09e9.usrfiles.com/ugd/3ce235_638d44fcc09b4a639052c9e235c7d365.pdf Side By Side (Updated May 17, 2024) - https://3ce23514-62b3-4167-a04a-ad0b131b09e9.usrfiles.com/ugd/3ce235_a649a4dd76744db9a7b694b674abe007.pdf Slate - https://3ce23514-62b3-4167-a04a-ad0b131b09e9.usrfiles.com/ugd/3ce235_b5362f7963f4404197b79cf0bc28b18c.pdf Budget - https://3ce23514-62b3-4167-a04a-ad0b131b09e9.usrfiles.com/ugd/3ce235_49cad73f6d6c43a7aa02b14fb6c6796b.pdf Call letter with absentee and proxy ballots.pdf - https://3ce23514-62b3-4167-a04a-ad0b131b09e9.usrfiles.com/ugd/3ce235_d03f98593c1340a4a4c54ca1bd3cccb7.pdf Gift Policy - https://3ce23514-62b3-4167-a04a-ad0b131b09e9.usrfiles.com/ugd/3ce235_04523911bdde4e849c42f72c82ace46b.pdf Endowment policy - https://3ce23514-62b3-4167-a04a-ad0b131b09e9.usrfiles.com/ugd/3ce235_8c46870199b84675bb3b5c62ed4062a7.pdf

Welcome and Announcements Processional Hymn #361 "Enter, Rejoice and Come In" Words and music by Louise Ruspini Enter, rejoice, and come in. Enter, rejoice, and come in. Today will be a joyful day; enter, rejoice, and come in. Open your ears to the song... Open your hearts ev'ryone... Don't be afraid of some change... Enter, rejoice, and come in... Centering Prelude "The Chrysanthemum" by Scott Joplin performed by Dorothy Bognar Chalice Lighting and Opening Words Story: "The Flaming Chalice" Music "Andante Cantabile" "by unknown" Performed by Dean Gonzalez, euphonium Joys and Concerns Musical Interlude Offering In keeping with our congregation's 2018 resolution to become a sanctuary congregation, our community outreach offering for May is dedicated to two important immigrants' rights groups in Connecticut. Hartford Deportation Defense say "we are an immigrant-led mutual aid collective that fights for the rights of all immigrants in the Hartford area, so that we can all have access to a dignified, peaceful, and joyful life. Unidad Latina en Accion or ULA, was founded in New Haven in 2002, with the goal of building grassroots immigrant power across Connecticut to win economic and racial justice. Offering Music "Intermezzo" by Heinz Provost Anhared Stowe, violin; Mary Bopp, piano Story: "Righteous Among the Nations" Hymn #8 "Mother Spirit, Father Spirit" words and music by Norbert F. Capek Mother Spirit, Father Spirit, where are you? In the sky song, in the forest, sounds your cry. What to give you, what to call you, what am I? Many drops are in the ocean, deep and wide. Sunlight bounces off the ripples to the sky. What to give you, what to call you, who am I? I am empty, time flies from me; what is time? Dreams eternal, fears infernal haunt my heart. What to give you, what to call you, O, my God? Mother Spirit, Father Spirit, take our hearts. Take our breath and let our voices sing our parts. Take our hands and let us work to shape our art. Story: "Flower Communion" Flower Communion Ceremony Closing Hymn #12 "O Life That Maketh All Things New" Words by Samuel Longfellow Music: Thomas Williams's Psalmodia Evangelica, 1789 O Life that maketh all things new, the blooming earth, our thoughts within, our pilgrim feet, wet with thy dew, in gladness hither turn again. From hand to hand the greeting flows, from eye to eye the signals run, from heart to heart the bright hope glows, the seekers of the light are one: One in the freedom of the truth, one in the joy of paths untrod, one in the soul's perennial youth, one in the larger thought of God; The freer step the fuller breath, the wide horizon's grander view, the sense of life that knows no death, the Life that maketh all things new. Extinguishing the Chalice Closing Circle May faith in the spirit of life And hope for the community of earth And love of the light in each other Be ours now, and in all the days to come.

i can see the galaxies / take me with you honestly / leave behind the color fleet / be my feet, be my feet—lyrics from Luke Harper’s song, “Star Trek.” Luke: Thank you so much for sharing your music this morning. It is not easy for anyone to share their art with a community that is still very new to them, especially when that art is as personal and probing as your songs are. Luke sent me an explanation of this song and its inspirations, including a line-by-line analysis, some of which I will address because it is relevant to our May ministry theme, pluralism. However, I’m not attempting to address the full scope of the song’s meaning, especially since Luke intentionally uses words and phrases that have multiple meanings and thus lend themselves to multiple interpretations. Bottom line: there’s far more to this song than what I am addressing here. I suspect very few of you  have never heard of Star Trek, writer and producer Gene Rodenberry’s global science fiction juggernaut that began as a fringe television series in the 1960s, and expanded over the decades into eleven more television series, thirteen films, video games, novels, action figures, comic books, etc. Luke describes his father praising Star Trek, essentially for the racial and cultural diversity of the crew on board the Starship Enterprise. I remember my father, in the 1970s, praising Star Trek for the same reasons. In my assessment, Rodenberry was attempting to do two things with his diverse cast. First, he was channeling a central tenant of the American creed from the Declaration of Independence, “all men are created equal,” and using it as cultural and social criticism. That is, if we as a nation were really living our creed, then our neighborhoods, workplaces, schools, congregations and corporate boardrooms would look like the Enterprise crew. Second, he was projecting into the coming decades, proclaiming, “this is our future, and the sooner we get there, the better.” Rodenberry’s initial vision was even more radical for its time than what viewers saw on television. He recognized that the language of “all men are created equal” was in desperate need of an update. In the original pilot, which NBC rejected, the first officer, Number One, was not Spock, but a human woman, played by the actress Majel Barrett. NBC executives couldn’t accept a woman serving in this second-in-command role. A diverse cast operating a starship, yes. But a woman with real power? The execs said audiences weren’t ready for that. Rodenberry was forced to compromise in order for NBC to air the show. Barrett was demoted to a non-officer role. She played Nurse Chapel in the sick bay, assistant to Doctor Bones McCoy. i can see the galaxies / take me with you honestly / leave behind the color fleet / be my feet, be my feet. As much as the Star Trek franchise envisions a grand multicultural, multiracial, multiethnic, anti-sexist, antiracist future, it is also a stinging reminder that the vision does not match our current reality. It didn’t match reality in the 1960s, and although our society has changed markedly since then, it doesn’t match reality today. For some of us, that’s easy to forget. In praising and celebrating the diversity of the Enterprise crew, we can succumb to the false impression that the presence of diversity equals the presence of equity. It doesn’t. Luke’s song takes “the perspective of someone who wouldn’t have the privilege of manning [a starship] or even being invited onboard, a dangerous alien perhaps.” The song speaks to the reality that “some are afforded the fullness of their humanity and some are left behind.” But the person left behind is intensely, even painfully aware of this crew journeying boldly into the unknown—an experience they don’t get to have. i can see the galaxies. The person left behind expresses a profound longing to join the mission, to go on the journey. take me with you, honestly. The person left behind is keenly aware of the barriers, not only to joining the crew, but also to the flourishing of their full humanity, and so they plead: leave behind the color fleet. The person left behind is also aware that the only way for them to join this galactic journey is for the crew members to use their power and privilege to break down barriers, to expand their welcome, to protect those who are vulnerable, to recognize, honor and invite the flourishing of everyone’s full humanity. In other words, please, please, please use your power and privilege on my behalf. Be my feet, be my feet. And maybe I’ll get to visit the galaxies too. Our ministry theme for May is pluralism, which refers to multiple groups of people co-existing peacefully, working together productively, respecting each other, being at ease with each other, even piloting a starship together. I want to talk specifically about religious pluralism.  Unitarian Universalist congregations are religiously pluralistic, meaning that on any Sunday morning you’ll find a great variety of religious seekers including pagans, Buddhists, agnostics, atheists, Humanists, Christians, Jews and—less numerous but certainly present in our congregations—Muslims, Hindus, people with Confucian and Taoist heritage, people with indigenous, First Nations heritage and practices, yoga practitioners, tarot-card readers, animal psychics and Reiki specialists. Furthermore, most of us mix and match two or more of these spiritual identities, similar to the way feminist spiritual writer and vegetarian cooking guru Carol Lee Flinders once described her practice: not “Buddhist,… Hindu or Catholic or Sufi, though I feel that in a sense it is all of these…. I meditate as best I can on Native American prayers and Taoist verses, on passages drawn from the Bible or the Upanishads, on passionate love songs composed for the One Beloved by a Spanish monk or an Indian princess-turned-minstrel.”[2] Given our internal religious pluralism, and given polarizing trends in the early 21st-century American religious and political landscape, specifically the rise of Christian Nationalism, I say Unitarian Universalism is not only uniquely situated—but uniquely called—to offer a faithful and robust defense of religious pluralism. In short, there are many minority religious traditions—many of which have arrived on American shores with recent immigrants—who see galaxies, but who need an already established crew to be their feet. Oddly, Star Trek, despite the diversity of its cast, despite the way that cast onboard the Enterprise (and all the other franchise starships) implies a pluralistic society back on an imagined future Earth or throughout an imagined future Federation of Planets, despite the way the cast reminds viewers of an implicit equality among persons regardless of race, gender, culture, etc., there is one major aspect of pluralism missing from the franchise: religious pluralism. This past Wednesday, freelance pop culture journalist, Dylan Roth, in a review of a recent episode of “Discovery,” the current Star Trek TV series, points out that “Star Trek’s future is a secular one. Franchise creator Gene Roddenberry was an avowed atheist, and the series and its spin-offs have routinely criticized organized religion as manipulative, illogical, and detrimental to the evolution of a society.”[3] He suggests Star Trek’s anti-religious ethos has softened over the years, but even so, religious identity remains at best a very thin layer of Star Trek’s celebrated pluralism. Even as a child in what he called “a supernatural” household, (meaning a Christian household), Rodenberry gravitated toward atheism. [4] As an adult he joined the American Humanist Association. Although I am not aware of a specific connection for Rodenberry, I note that the first Star Trek episode aired in September of 1966. Five months earlier, Time Magazine had famously asked the question on its cover, “Is God Dead?”[5] That cover story profiled the ‘Death of God’ movement which was flourishing primarily at liberal divinity schools and seminaries in Europe and the United States. Of course, the rest of the world never got the memo. Despite data showing the overall decline of organized religion in the United States, Europe and elsewhere, human religiosity, spirituality, spiritual practice, faith, worship, ritual, and the continual creation of religious and spiritual communities has never waned. I still remember when one of the leading “Death of God” theologians, former Harvard religion professor, Harvey Cox, announced in his 2010 book, The Future of Faith,[6] that he had been wrong, that religion had exploded globally in ways he could never have anticipated in the 1960s. And I still love Boston University religion professor Stephen Prothero’s description of the world as “furiously religious.”[7] By “furious” he didn’t mean angry or violent. He meant passionate, diverse, influential and growing. But today we witness the rise of a truly furious global religious identity, Christian Nationalism. To be fair, there are many versions of this identity, some more moderate, some more extreme. The more I research it, the more I conclude it is difficult to pin down with one, sweeping definition. It takes many different forms and has many different spokespeople, though clearly its most ardent proponents in the United States envision our nation not as a modern democracy, not as a constitutional republic, but as a Christian theocracy grounded in a very specific reading of the Bible, aligned explicitly with white supremacy ideals, and planning to enact into law—if it can gain sufficient power—some of the most extreme conservative culture war goals: a national ban on abortion with no exceptions; retrenchment on LGBTQ civil rights and cultural visibility; the teaching of a dishonest and racist interpretation of US history at all levels of the educational system; and the positioning of conservative, evangelical Christianity legally and culturally as the one true religion, thereby diminishing and devaluing religious pluralism and the many non-Christian faith traditions that Americans practice. This is not Gene Rodenberry’s Star Trek. This is Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. But more to the point, it is un-American. Confession: the original version of this sermon was 2,000 words about the place of religious pluralism at the founding of our nation. I took a deep dive into the Virginia Statue for Religious Freedom, how the effort to insert ‘Jesus Christ’ into its preamble was defeated; and how, in Thomas Jefferson’s words, the statute was ‘meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo and infidel of every denomination.’”[8] I came across a somewhat random comment from George Washington who, while searching for “a carpenter and bricklayer to help at his Virginia home … explained that the workers’ beliefs—or lack thereof—mattered not at all: ‘If they are good workmen, they may be of Asia, Africa, or Europe. They may be Mahometans [Muslims], Jews or Christian of an[y] Sect, or they may be Atheists.’”[9] All of this was context for passage of the first half of the first amendment to the United States Constitution which states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” For background on the complexities, the political expediencies and the limits of this founding vision of American religious pluralism, I recommend 2013 book, Thomas Jefferson’s Qur’an: Islam and the Founders,[10] from the American scholar of Islamic history and Middle Eastern Studies, Denise Spellberg. Our Unitarian and Universalist forebears were present at the nation’s founding. The Universalist medical doctor, Benjamin Rush, signed the Declaration of Independence. Unitarians John Adams (also a signer) and John Quincy Adams served as the second and sixth United States presidents. They helped establish the American creed: all of us are created equal. They didn’t achieve it. We know this. The United States was established to protect, serve and advance the interests of wealthy, white male property owners. Some of those who most clearly articulated a vision of religious pluralism were also slaveholders. It was a limited vision. But somehow they laid the groundwork for a more inclusive future, even if they didn’t fully imagine it at the time. And we will not abandon that future now. We Unitarian Universalists are ourselves a small religious minority, but we also have power and privilege stemming from our history, stemming from our cultural whiteness and our middle and upper-middle class social location; and stemming from the way in which our principles and values overlap with the ideals of the American creed—equality, liberty, freedom of conscience, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, religious freedom. The existence of other religions poses no threat to us. We welcome it. We celebrate it. We eagerly engage in interfaith relationship building and social justice activism. We are proud of the way religious pluralism seeps into our pews and into our hearts. So many people, so many communities, so many religious minorities feel vulnerable in the United States, feel at risk, invisible, threatened. Yet they see galaxies too. They long to belong to and in this modern democracy which promises to make no law respecting the establishment of religion of the free exercise thereof. That promise remains unfulfilled, but we intend to keep it. Again, I say Unitarian Universalism is uniquely called to offer a faithful and robust defense of religious pluralism. Perhaps we’re like an established starship crew—not as diverse as we want to be, but we’re on our journey. Can we bring others along? Leave the color fleet behind? be their feet, be their feet? The answer is yes. Amen and blessed be. [1] There is a wealth of information about the “Star Trek franchise at the official “Star Trek” website: https://www.startrek.com/. [2] Flinders, Carol Lee, At the Root of This Longing: Reconciling a Spiritual Hunger and A Feminist Thirst (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1998) pp. 24-25. [3]Roth, Dylan, “Star Trek: Discovery boldly goes where no Trek has gone before by saying religion is... OK, actually,” Polygon, May 8, 2024. See: https://www.polygon.com/24151113/star-trek-discovery-religion-whistlespeak. [4] See the text to Gene Rodenberrry’s 1991 interview with “The Humanist” magazine at https://thehumanist.com/features/interviews/humanist-interview-gene-roddenberry/. Some may also appreciate this article on Gene Rodenberry as a pantheist: https://www.pantheism.net/paul/history/star-trek.htm. [5] Elson, John Truscott, “Is God Dead?” Time, April 8, 1966. See: https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,835309-1,00.html. [6] Cox, Harvey, The Future of Faith (New York: HarperOne, 2010). See Introduction. [7] Prothero, Stephen, God Is Not One (New York: HarperOne, 2010) p. 4. [8] Ragosta, John, “Thomas Jefferson and Relgious Freedom,” April 16, 2018. See: https://www.monticello.org/research-education/thomas-jefferson-encyclopedia/thomas-jefferson-and-religious-freedom/#fn-src-9. [9] Spellberg, Denise, “Our Founding Fathers Included Islam,” Salon, October 5, 2013. See: https://www.salon.com/2013/10/05/our_founding_fathers_included_islam/. [10] For an overview, check out Spellberg, Denise, “Our Founding Fathers Included Islam,” Salon, October 5, 2013. See: https://www.salon.com/2013/10/05/our_founding_fathers_included_islam/.

Gathering Music Welcome and Announcements Centering Prelude "Bad Kids from Out of Town" by Luke Harper Chalice Lighting and Opening Words "Come One, Come All" by the Rev. Ian W. Riddell Opening Hymn #1023 "Building Bridges" Words: The women of the Greenham Common peace occupation in England, 1983 Music: Contemporary English Quaker Road Building Bridges between our divisions, I reach out to you, will you reach out to me? With all of our voices and all of our visions, friends, we could make such sweet harmony. Time for All Ages Musical Interlude Joys and Concerns Musical Interlude Offering In keeping with our congregation's 2018 resolution to become a sanctuary congregation, our community outreach offering for May is dedicated to two important immigrants' rights groups in Connecticut. Hartford Deportation Defense say, "we are an immigrant-led mutual aid collective that fights for the rights of all immigrants in the Hartford area, so that we can all have access to a dignified, peaceful, and joyful life." Unidad Latina en Accion or ULA, was founded in New Haven in 2002, with the goal of building grassroots immigrant power across Connecticut to win economic and racial justice. Offering Music "Star Trek" by Luke Harper Sermon "Longing to Belong" Rev. Josh Pawelek Closing Song #162 "Gonna Lay Down My Sword and Shield" words and music: African American spiritual led by Luke Harper Gonna lay down my sword and shield, down by the riverside, down by the riverside, down by the riverside. Gonna lay down my sword and shield, down by the riverside, gonna study war no more. (Chorus) I ain't gonna study war no more, I ain't gonna study war no more, ain't gonna study war no more (2x) Gonna lay down my burden down by the riverside ... (Chorus) Gonna shake hands around the world, ev'rywhere I roam ... (Chorus) Gonna lay down my sword and shield, down by the riverside ... (Chorus) Extinguishing the Chalice Closing Circle May faith in the spirit of life And hope for the community of earth And love of the light in each other Be ours now, and in all the days to come.

Gathering Music Welcome and Announcements Centering Prelude A melody performed by Members of the Manchester Women's Sacred Singing Circle Service Introduction Chalice Lighting and Opening Words "We Gather" by Rev. Dr. David Breeden Here, gathered, breath mingling, thoughts intersecting, we seek the simple press of presence, open, earnest. Here, we strive to live into knowing. Our presence is sacred, our connections divine. In the clasp of hands, in a shared glance, we claim our place-- beyond thresholds that too often refuse to yield In words, in silence, in music and stillness-- the performances of our existence call to the beauty etched in every being. In a world too often afraid to reach out, we gather, here, in the teeth of hierarchies, in the face of walls built of lies, we rise in wisdom. Our presence is sacred, our connections divine. Opening Hymn "Come, Come, Whoever You Are" #188 in Singing the Living Tradition Words adapted from Rumi, Music by Lynn Adair Ungar Come, come, whoever you are, wanderer, worshipper, love of leaving. Ours is no caravan of despair. Come, yet again come. Reflections from Janice Knotts Hymn "Meditation on Breathing" #1009 in Singing the Journey Music and Lyrics by Sarah Dan Jones Led by The Manchester Women's Sacred Singing Circle When I breathe in, I'll breathe in peace. When I breathe out, I'll breathe out love. Joys and Concerns Reflections from Nancy Thompson Offering Continuing our practice of sharing our gifts wit the community beyond our walls, fifty percent of our Sunday plate collections for the month of May will be split between Hartford Deportation Defense (Colectivo de Defensa Hartford) and Unidad Latinas en Accion. Offering Music "Journeys" Original Piece by Mary Bopp Reflections from Ellen Williams Closing Hymn "When Our Heart is in a Holy Place" #1008 in Singing the Journey Music and Lyrics by Joyce Poley Chorus: When our heart is in a holy place, When our heart is in a holy place, We are bless'd with love and amazing grace, When our heart is in a holy place. When we trust the wisdom in each of us, Ev'ry color ev'ry creed and kind, And we see our faces in each other's eyes, Then our heart is in a holy place. Chorus When we tell our story from deep inside, And we listen with a loving mind, And we hear our voices in each other's words, Then our heart is in a holy place. Chorus When we share the silence of sacred space, And the God of our Heart stirs within, And we feel the power of each other's faith, Then our heart is in a holy place. Chorus Extinguishing the Chalice Closing Words "Less beautiful without you" by Tess Baumberger This place would be less beautiful without you, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Jew, Hindu, Humanist, and Earth-centered, too. This place would be less beautiful without you, Your heart honed by hardship, grief, illness, Seeking solace and comfort here among us. This place would be less beautiful without you, Filled with joy and gratitude, Seeking celebration of life's bounty. This place would be less beautiful without you, Curious, inquisitive, asking questions, seeking transformation emerging from within. This place would be less beautiful without you, Striving to resist a world that tells us We are so much less than we can truly be. This place would be less beautiful without each of us, Borne here in this morning to seek heaven's fire In each other's souls, our own flames rising to meet. Closing Circle May faith in the spirit of life And hope for the community of earth And love of the light in each other Be ours now, and in all the days to come.

A Meditation on Grace (Rev. Josh Pawelek) Where are my keys? I gotta go. I gotta go. Have you seen my keys? Did you look on the key hook in the coat closet? They’re not there. Did you look in the junk drawer? Not there. Did you look on your desk? Yes, not there. Have you tried your pants pockets? Thanks honey. Bye. Love you! Grace is like that. Not a gift from on high you don’t deserve. Not a light shining down reserved for just a few lucky souls. Not a way for the faithful to trust they’re saved from some depravity they’ve been told is who they are. No. Grace is like finding your car keys, which were never really lost. You’d just forgotten, for a moment, where they were. Grace is like clear sight after the rain. You just needed to wait out the storm. It needs to be said, grace is for everyone. The fount of every blessing. The great spirit resting in us always, at all times. The love that guides us always, at all times. We don’t have to wait, anxious, fearful, wondering, “will we ever measure up?” “Will we ever get it right?” Will we ever deserve it?” Grace is already ours. The gifts of this world – people, creatures, nature, beauty, creativity, love, compassion, generosity, star fish, trees, oceans, mountains, faith – already ours. We don’t have to wait for something beyond us to act. We just have to remember, the grace of the world is already ours. Amen and blessed be. Shine (Rev. Josh Pawelek) “Woah. Heaven let your light shine down”—a lyric from the 1993 hit song, “Shine,” by the Georgia-based (and, in my view, somewhat derivative) rock band “Collective Soul.” I’ve always liked the song, never loved it. But then, country music superstar Dolly Parton—not, in my view, derivative at all—heard “Shine” on the radio, loved it, and recorded it on her 2001 album, “Little Sparrow.” For that performance she won a Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal performance. As I pay very little attention to commercial country music—that’s a different sermon—I never knew Dolly Parton had recorded this song or that she’d won an award for it. It only recently came to my attention as the soundtrack to the closing scene of the final episode of the fourth season of the HBO series, “The Righteous Gemstones,” which follows the fortunes and, more specifically, the misfortunes of an evangelical Christian family who operate a successful mega church, somewhere in America. The fourth season aired this year. Again, that’s where I heard Dolly Parton’s version of “Shine” for the first time, twenty-two years after she recorded it. I recommend “The Righteous Gemstones.” Our family loves it. It’s funny. It’s raw. It’s touching. Trigger warning: it’s exceedingly crass and does at times feature some of the typical and unnecessary HBO prurience.  It stars John Goodman as Eli Gemstone, the wise though flawed family patriarch, a televangelist with a sordid past, aging and trying to retire, but very reticent to leave his still-thriving church empire to his three completely dysfunctional adult children. The Gemstone family struggles. They fight with each other. They threaten each other. At times they hate each other. They each in their own way grieve the untimely death of the family matriarch, Eli’s late wife, the children’s mother, Aimee Leigh Gemstone. Extended family members jockey for access to the Gemstone’s wealth and power. Church staff and others in the wider world jockey for the same access. Other mega church families compete with them. Eli’s children rarely respond well. They make mistakes but aren’t sure how to apologize. They cause harm, but aren’t sure how to acknowledge and atone for their actions. They are flawed people who know how to say the word ‘redemption’—know how to preach it—but don’t quite know how to actually be redeemed, aren’t quite aware that what they preach might actually apply to them. They are lost, wandering, searching, struggling, arrogant, even broken people who need some grace. Spoiler alert: in that final scene, though none of their issues are fully resolved, though they still have a lot of work to do, a lot of healing to do, a lot of relationship repair and building to do, they are, at least for the moment, reconciled to each other. They are together, enjoying each other’s company, loving each other, momentarily redeemed, experiencing at least some temporary grace. Aimee Leigh’s spirit is visually watching over them as they take turns driving a church-owned Monster Truck called “The Redeemer” across a field on their property, and Dolly Parton’s “Shine” plays in the background. None of them got what they wanted, really. But somehow they got what they needed. I cried. Heaven let your light shine down. That’s how I landed here this morning, talking about grace. The song sparked the idea. The song is our sacred text for this morning. I originally called this sermon “Grace for Unitarian Universalists,” though now I just call it “Shine.” In my newsletter announcement I wrote “Sometimes we get what we don’t deserve … and it’s wonderful. One traditional religious term for this phenomenon is grace, though Unitarian Universalists typically don’t embrace this term, [not in its traditional sense]. Given that, what might grace look like for UUs?” Please know it was entirely unconscious on my part to plan a sermon on grace for UUs for this particular Sunday, but I confess to you how strongly I feel we here, in this UU congregation, right now, we need some grace. Over the last year we’ve had a challenging discussion about proposed changes to Article II of the Unitarian Universalist Association bylaws. Not everyone has been directly involved in the discussion, but for those who have, relationships have been strained, some perhaps broken.  We need some grace. Heaven let your light shine down. And now we’re approaching our Annual Meeting in May, at which we will consider changes to our UUSE Constitution, some of which refer to our institutional relationship to the Unitarian Universalist Association. Our Policy Board has been operating in good faith, trying to make the best decisions possible about how to structure that meeting, while also experiencing fairly intense pressure on multiple fronts to structure it in specific ways. Most of you are not involved in these discussions, but there are certainly rumors flying around about them, and some inaccurate information. Without getting too deep into the weeds, I’ll give you one example: there’s a rumor that one of the votes we’re considering for the Annual Meeting would end our congregational affiliation with the UUA. This isn’t true. The taskforce that worked on the package of proposed constitutional changes has been very clear there is no proposal for us to end our affiliation with the UUA. The proposal in question would make it easier to end affiliation in the future if the congregation feels it is necessary. Some are concerned this is still too much too soon and prefer a discernment period. There’s a lot of gray. For those involved, this experience has strained, perhaps even broken relationships. We need some grace. Heaven let your light shine down. I remain completely confident that everyone who wants to speak at our Annual Meetinng will have an opportunity to speak, and every item that people want to vote on will come up for a vote. And a congregation-wide discernment process about our relationship to the UUA will commence sometime this spring. The Policy Board’s process, as messy as it has been, has gotten us to the point where I can feel this confidence. I know—believe me, I know—the Board’s decisions are unsatisfying to people on all sides of these various debates, but they are solid decisions and that’s why I feel confident. I commend the Policy Board for its work. Though understandable under the circumstances, it’s also not normal for UUSE Policy Board members to feel such pressure in relation to setting our Annual Meeting agenda. The pressure exists because people care deeply. That’s a good thing. But it makes governance very difficult. We need some grace. Heaven let your light shine down. We need some grace because none of it will end with our Annual Meeting. The UUA General Assembly will vote on the proposal to change Article 2 of its bylaws in June. Whatever the outcome, I suspect it will create more tension, anxiety, and possibly conflict here. Heaven let your light shine down. And then in June of 2025, the UUA will publish proposed changes to the rest of its bylaws. I suspect those proposals will create more tension, anxiety and possibly conflict here.  We need some grace. Heaven let your light shine down. I’ll stop saying that now. It’s a nice metaphor once or twice, but at some point it begs the theological question, “Heaven?” Totally legit question. Many answers. For example, some of you are sure there is no Heaven. Some of you will speak of Heaven, but limit your speaking to a vision of Heaven on Earth. Some of you won’t rule out Heaven; you’re convinced the standard depiction of angels, clouds, harps and pearly gates is a fiction; but you’re not sure what images will adequately replace that standard. Some of you wonder about and lean toward the notion that a spiritual realm beyond this physical realm exists, that there is some continuation of our essence after we die, even if our consciousness ends. My late father, a highly regarded molecular biologist who published more than a hundred articles in major scientific journals, an agnostic UU Humanist, deeply grounded in the scientific method, was convinced of the reality of an enduring spiritual realm beyond this physical realm. He called it Heaven. When we start digging into the metaphor from the song, there’s a lot there to consider. But it it’s not just a consideration of Heaven. What about the light? Is there a light that shines down? If so, what is its source? What is its power in our lives? Does it shine down, i.e., are we sure Heaven is up? Might it shine around? Or within? Or between? And perhaps most importantly, who’s doing the shining? And if they are shining their light down on me, why me, and not someone else? Or why us and not some other people? What did we do to deserve it? Is there something special about us, or did the shiner just randomly pick us? Or—Universalism—doesn’t the light shine on everyone, and we just forgot that minor theological tidbit from our religious heritage? But if that’s the case, then the lyric shouldn’t be “Heaven let your light shine down.” It should be something like, “Let me – or let us – remember Heaven’s omnipresent light.” Theology’s fun! All this is a set-up for talking about grace. Here’s a traditional Christina definition of grace from Van A. Harvey’s A Handbook of Theological Terms, a little reference book I acquired during my seminary years. “Grace is perhaps the most crucial concept in Christian theology because it refers to the free and unmerited act through which God restores his estranged creatures to himself.” [1] In other words, Heaven let your light shine down. Though most Christian churches accept this formal definition, how grace actually works and what it achieves are topics they’ve heatedly debated for two thousand years. If I may make a very general statement, it is my impression that for Unitarians, Universalists and Unitarian Universalists, over the last century, but stemming back to the 18th-century influence of the European Enlightenment on our faith traditions (the de-emphasis of the supernatural and the emphasis on reason in religion) traditional understandings of grace haven’t meant very much to us. The fact that this gift from God—this light shining down, whatever it may be, is unmerited, is a problem for us. “Unmerited” is a tricky word. Too often implies that we don’t actually deserve it. Our human flaws, foibles and fragilities, our weaknesses, our losing it from time to time, in this traditional theology, are signs of an innate depravity or sinfulness. God’s grace is a gift we don’t deserve. But this is not how religious liberals have understood humanity and human nature for the past three hundred years. Yes, human beings have flaws. Yes, human beings have proven capable of astounding cruelty and evil. But that does not mean there is some innate depravity, some enduring, inherent sinfulness from which we must be saved by some power beyond us who thinks we don’t deserve it but is willing to grant us grace anyways. No, we liberal religious people perceive and honor the inherent goodness in people. That’s our starting place. We try to nurture and develop that goodness in ourselves and our children. We fully realize that people make mistakes, cause harm, abuse power, but we do not confuse that with innate, inescapable sinfulness, or with human destiny. We believe each human being holds a spark of the divine. Though we articulate many different understandings of that spark, that divinity, that sacredness, that holiness, what our Unitarian forebears called that “likeness to God,” that inherent worth and dignity, it is non-negotiable for us. And it is universal. So we don’t intuitively recognize a divine judge determining whether or not we merit reconciliation with him. Most of us have rejected what I call vertical notions of the divine: God transcendent, distant, distinct, and up above, handing down grace we don’t deserve with no explanation. Our liberal theology tends to be horizontal. The divine is not above, but amidst; not beyond, but within; not distant, but immanent; not inscrutable, but deeply knowable—knowable in the person sitting next to you, right now. That person sitting next to you is a source of divine grace. It is knowable in your neighbor, your co-worker, your teacher, your student, the one you help and in the one who helps you—all sources of divine grace. You are a source of divine grace. When our text for this morning says “Love is in the water / Love is in the air,” or “Teach me how to speak / Teach me how to share,” it is much more in line with how we as liberal religious people experience grace: the gifts of an immanent divinity—infused into the world around us and manifesting in people, creatures, nature, art, creativity,  music, beauty—life-giving gifts always available to us if we pay attention, always accessible to us if we remain open; gifts sometimes coming to us in surprising ways, serendipitous ways, ways we never expected, ways that feel novel, new and clear now that the rain has gone, but gifts which were actually always there, waiting for us to remember, waiting for us to wake up, waiting for us to come home. Come, thou fount of every blessing. Great spirit come and rest in me. Friends, we need grace. Let us remember we are gifts to each other, and gifts to the world. Let us remember those around us are gifts to us, that indeed the world is a gift to us. Grace abounds, even if the metaphors don’t always line up. Heaven let you light shine down. Or maybe we make it more simple. Shine. Shine. Shine. Amen and blessed be. [1] Harvey, Van A., “Grace,” A Handbook of Theological Terms (New York: Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, 1964) p. 108.