FINDING OUR OWN NORTH STARJANUARY 3, 2016

WELCOME

Sandra: Good morning. Welcome to the Unitarian Universalist Community Church. My name is Sandra Morton.

We’re glad you’ve chosen to worship with us this morning. If you’re visiting with us today, we offer a warm welcome. I hope you’ll stay after the service for coffee, tea and a chance for us to get to know each other.

Whoever you are, whatever your faith journey, whomever you love, you are welcome here. We welcome all who seek to know the Sacred, and all who seek to make our world more just.

As we begin service, please make sure your cell phone will not disturb others. We have childcare downstairs for anyone who would be happier there.

If you have a joy or sorrow that you would like added to the Prayer of the People, please write it on one of the cards available on the back table and drop it in the basket.

Today we begin our 4th annual January Jump Guest Artist Series with Youth Pianist Max Diamond.  Max is the grandson of

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UUCC member Rita Beasley and has been playing piano for nine years and composing for four.  Currently, he is the lead composer of Toontown Rewritten, an online family computer game. He attends the Appomattox Regional Governor's School for Arts and Technology, majoring in Piano.  He recently attended six weeks of formal training in Composition at the elite Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan.  Max has a band in which he plays the keyboards, and he recently started recording his first songs. More than anything though, Max loves music, and will talk to anybody who's willing to dialogue with him about it!  Max will be giving us a gift of a 20 minute interactive concert immediately following the service.  Listen for the chimes to ring in the lobby, then get your coffee or tea and join us in the sanctuary for this special time of music.  Max will now begin our service with an original composition entitled “Prelude in F Major”.

Prelude in F MajorMax Diamond

OPENING WORDS

Sandra: And now we begin our worship.

As we welcome in the new year, our thoughts turn to the fresh, blank page that we may create in our lives and here in our congregation. In past months, our leadership has begun

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discussing our vision and our mission, in other words, our direction and our purpose. Today we’ll talk about why it is important that together as a congregation we intentionally declare our purpose and our direction. Our vision/mission planning team has begun calling this “our North Star”. Today’s service will be centered around “finding our own North Star”.

OPENING HYMN

Sandra: As we gather together aware of the gifts we all bring, let’s sing together our opening hymn #404, What Gift Can We Bring”. Please follow the cues from our song leader, Eric Gee.

  

LIGHTING THE CHALICE

Amy: Our chalice lighting words from Kathleen McTigue and will be read responsively. Please read the parts in italics that are displayed on the monitor:

Here in the refuge of this Sabbath homeWe turn our busy minds towards silence,And our full hearts toward one another.We move together through the mysteries: the bright surprise of birth and the shadowed questions of death.

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In our slow walk between the two we will be wounded.And we will be showered with grace, amazing, unending.

Even in our sorrows, we feel our lives cradled in holiness we cannot comprehend.

And though we each walk within a vast loneliness,The promise we offer here is that we do not walk alone.This is a holy place in which we gather-The light of the earth brought in and held,Touched then by our answering light:

The flame on a chalice,The flicker of a candleThe lamps of our open faces brought near.In this place of silence and celebration,Solemnity and music,We make a sanctuary and name our home.

[Sandra lights the chalice, then moves to the podium.]

AFFIRMATION

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Sandra: Please stand as you’re able, and join me in saying our Affirmation. Our affirmation begins with that all-important word: (Pause)

Love is the message of this churchand service is our way.

This is our great covenant together:to dwell together in peace,to seek the truth in love,and to help one another.

MESSAGE FOR ALL AGES

Adena Dannouf:

CHILDREN’S RECESSIONAL

As You Go (the slow one)As you go, may joy surround you,

As you go, go in peace.Know our love is with you always.

As you go, as you go.

OFFERING

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Sandra: It’s time to take up today’s offering. We thank you for all of the gifts you give this church, whether it’s time, talent, or treasure.

[Sandra hands out plates & sits. Usher brings Joys and Sorrows cards to front. During the offertory, Amy previews the cards.]

Sandra: All of your gifts show the love to the world that is this church.

Offertory:  TBDwill not be piano so it won't conflict with Max ... and it will simply be the length of the

offering to cover the action

PRAYER OF THE PEOPLE

Amy: After our busy holidays, here we are back in community with one another. I feel such gratitude for this Beloved Community, that remains strong even when we take time away. Let us take a moment just to feel the warmth of this community being together.

Silence.Thinking of someone in your life that comes to mind today. It could be someone you recently saw over the holidays. It could

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be someone you wish you had seen. Someone that you love, someone that you care about. Let us call out their names.

(Names are called out.)

Silence.

We add our prayers for these joys and sorrows.

[Then Amy reads cards.]

In silent reflection may we sit, as those who wish to honor a prayer or a wish by lighting a candle, come forward.

Lighting of candles

May these candles mark our intentions of love and care for this community and for those outside our community.

SPECIAL MUSIC

Piano Solo:  "Adagio from Sonata #1, Op. 2 No. 1" by Ludwig Van BeethovenPianist - Guest Artist Max Diamond

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READING

Sandra: Our reading today is called The Friction in the System, and is by Rachel Naomi Remen.

The Friction in the System

Thirty years ago, when the Concorde began to fly between the United States and Europe, it was the focus of a great deal of media attention. At Mach 2- 1,350 miles per hour-one could cross the Atlantic for the first time in less than four hours. No one had ever flown a commercial plane this fast before.

Several prominent media people were invited to fly on the first few maiden flights. To make the occasion even more special, these VIP passengers were given a tour that included a visit to the cockpit and a brief lecture.

One of these passengers was surprised to discover that no one actually kept the plane on course. Because of it phenomenal speed and the slowness of human reaction time, the course was actually maintained by two computers. The first computer took a course reading every few seconds and if the plane was off course, instantaneously fed this information to the second, which would make the needed correction and confirm the new course.

After a brief visit to the cockpit, he returned to his seat aware that something had caught his attention but unsure of what it was. For the next hour or so, he puzzled over it without being able to

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identify it. Finally, he asked a member of the crew if he might see the cockpit once more.

Once there, he realized almost immediately that it was not something that he had seen but something that he had heard. As the computers fed course readings and corrections back and forth between them, they made a certain sound. What he had noticed was that this sound was almost continuous. Turning to his tour guide, he remarked on this and asked what percentage of the time the plane was off course. The crew member smiled, “About ninety-nine percent of the time, sir,” he replied.

“And we will land in Paris at 9:03 p.m.?” said the VIP, marveling. “Yes, sir,” the crewman replied. “Plus or minus sixty seconds or so.”

This story was told to me and I have no idea of whether or not it is true, but it certainly raises an interesting thought. Perhaps it is not only a slow reaction time that would cause problems if the course was tracked by human beings. People put far more friction than this into their own feedback systems. How passionately many of us want to be right. It is not hard to imagine a human being telling another than he was wrong every few seconds and getting the defensive response, “No, I’m not.” You would miss Paris by many miles. You might even miss Europe. Even more important, a human being, being wrong 99 percent of the time, might lose heart.

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Might it be possible to focus ourselves on the purpose we wish to serve in the same way that the Concorde is focused on its destination and navigate a trajectory in just this same way? Once we stopped demanding of ourselves that we be on course all the time we might begin to look at our mistakes differently, giving them an impeccable attention and a frictionless response. They will not prevent us from reaching our dreams nearly so much as wanting to be right will.

Those who have the courage to offer us honesty, to be our navigators, might even come to be seen as worthy of a certain grantitude as collaborators in helping us reach our destination. “You are off course,” they might tell us. “Why, THANK you!” we might reply.

Serving anything worthwhile is a commitment to a direction over time and may require us to relinquish many moment to moment attachments, to let go of pride, approval, recognition, or even success. This is true whether we be parents, researchers, educators, artists, or heads of state. Serving life may require a faithfulness to purpose that lasts over a lifetime. It is less a work of the ego than a choice of the soul.

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Sermon: Finding our own North StarAmy Russell

CLOSING HYMNWe Give Thanks

Amy: Please join us for our closing hymn, #298, Wake Now My Senses. Please stand and watch your song leader for your cues.

BENEDICTION

Amy: We gather in community,Whereby people come together in order to fulfill a specific purpose, and help us each fulfill our own purpose.

.

[Sandra extinguishes the chalice.]

CLOSING WORDS

Amy: In preparation for our closing, let us reach out to each other and hold a hand or a shoulder.

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Amy: When you go, go in peace.All: Salaam and Shalom.

Amy: Leave this place knowing that you are good and knowing that you are loved.All: Blessed be.

Amy: Take your light and your love from this place. Share them with the world. And stay safe until we meet again.All: Amen.

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