A Place to Stay and Grow and Thrive
If Symborska is right, and all the water that is and ever was in the world is contained, somehow, in this single drop on my finger and in the drops in the water you brought with you this morning and in the sources from which you gathered your water–and there is scientific basis for that claim–and if we turn this morning to water as a metaphor for truth or enlightenment, than isn’t it a bit foolish that we come again and again to this specific place and time in search of what might be found anywhere there is water, at home or our neighborhood or our home towns or wherever we went for vacation this summer or pretty much anywhere? Perhaps. But it matters that we are here.
Anything Could Happen
One of my more scold-y Unitarian Universalist colleagues–fabulous by scold-y–issued a warning a few weeks ago: “if you’re going to call it an Easter service, you better preach about Jesus and the resurrection; if you talk about baby chicks and blooming flowers and new life, don’t you call it Easter.”
On Beyond Tolerance
A friend recently posted a short video on social media, showing herself interacting with a cat that had recently joined her household. In it Bridget can be heard to exclaim, “that’s unauthorized behavior!”
Reveling in the Darkness
In a poem, we sometimes read on Christmas Eve, Carl Sandburg asks
Shall we look up now at stars in Winter
And call them always sweeter friends
Because this story of a Mother and a Child
Never is told with the stars left out?
Awaiting the Birth of the Divine
I observe some Unitarian Universalist-tinged version of Advent every winter. I observe it in my home–usually lighting the candles and reading from texts both ancient and contemporary– because my parents observed it in my childhood home with the lighting of candles and readings from texts both ancient and contemporary.
What Does It Mean ‘Revelation Is Not Sealed’?
Early on in my ministry in South Bend, Indiana, the pastor of a quite conservative, local, independent church invited me to be a guest at an adult Christian education class.
What’s in an Acronym?
As I wrote in the newsletter earlier this summer, delegates to our Unitarian Universalist Association’s General Assembly adopted extensive revisions to Article 2 of the UUA by-law–part of which I read earlier this morning.
The Beauty of No Two Exactly Alike
Some of you here today and others who sit in our sanctuary or attend our services on YouTube, like some folks who participate in other Unitarian Universalist churches, were raised in our tradition.
Reflection for Music Sunday
Arlo Guthrie tells a story about performing with Pete Seeger at a three day folk festival in Denmark, in the early years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. 30,000 people from both sides of the former Iron Curtain showed up, many of them drawn by the novelty of being able to travel where they wanted to travel, even across national borders.
Can We Say That Here?
This sermon had several titles on the way to today. Can She Say That Here? Can They Say That Here? And finally Can We Say That Here? These are related but distinct questions.
Why Not Sing Kum Ba Yah?
It’s a more complicated question than I thought when I conceived this sermon.
There are several reasons, despite its place in our gray hymnal, that we perhaps should not sing #401 Kum Ba Yah. And one reason why we should, sometimes, sing it with great care.
We Are One: Another Definition of Universalism
Once upon a time my daughter learned a catchy little song at Chalice Camp–a Unitarian Universalist day camp. The lyrics, by Laila Ibrahim, come as close to a UU catechism as anything I’ve ever encountered:
It’s blessing each of us was born.
It matters what we do with our lives.
What each of us knows about God is a piece of the truth.
We don’t have to do it alone.
When Death Becomes Life
If you were here via YouTube Live or in the sanctuary last Sunday, you heard a message from our guest speaker that probably surprised you, and may have upset some of you. You probably expected to hear about Habitat for Humanity. Perhaps, fitting the theme of the month, some remarks about how homeownership, and the sweat equity Habitat requires of potential homeowners, transforms lives and families and communities. Instead you heard a decidedly Christian Palm Sunday sermon.
Not a Jewish Christmas, Not a UU Holiday
I was first introduced to the Jewish Festival of Lights in Unitarian Universalist Sunday School. We made tiny menorahs out of modeling clay and birthday cake candles, and took home a mimeographed sheet of readings to accompany lighting of the tiny Hanukkah candles.
Why a Flaming Chalice?
Upstairs in Phillippa’s Place this morning Megan and our children are having a lesson about symbols and making chalices for the children to bring home with them. I remember a similar lesson from my Sunday School days. The mimeographed symbol sheets included religious and international symbols–Red Cross, the peace symbol, a cross, the Star of David, the then quite recognizable logo from a now defunct local grocery store chain
Cycle of Water, Church, Life
Water Ceremony and Ingathering Sunday. Ingathering Sunday and Water Ceremony. These two not inherently related events have, through repetition, become fused in the liturgical cycle of many Unitarian Universalist congregations, and in the hearts of many individual Unitarian Universalists.
Good Enough
There is a story we tell in our western culture. It’s a story about a story. We tell it in our books for middle grade kids and in our movies and sit-coms. We tell the story that most normal kids go through a stage during which they fantasize (tell a story) about their parents not being their parents.
The Transient, the Permanent and the Semi-Permanent
I love the enthusiasm and creativity Tom and Milne have brought to our stewardship drive. I particularly love that they have centered much of the discussion about supporting our church around foundational Unitarian Universalist principles, but my heart kind of sank when I saw our flower children with their 8 principles signs a couple Sundays ago, because I knew I’d be preaching today about how those principles will soon be neither official nor prominent among our public discussions and statements of what Unitarian Universalism is, and who UUs are, and what both holds us together as a faith movement and sets us apart as a distinct faith movement.
The Universalist God
As I see the blooming tulip-trees around town I’m reminded of my favorite mnemonic device from my divinity school days: TULIP.
Total depravity;
Unconditional election;
Limited atonement;
Irresistible grace; and
Perseverance of the saints.