sermon summaries

Parenting (from mothers, fathers, siblings, others) is an important part of the process we call “growing up,” though it is only one part, and perhaps not always the most important part.  If we have received good enough parenting to have survived to adulthood, what are the further steps and sources for growing up? (It’s pretty clear that many so-called adults still have a long way to go… for example, most current US government leaders?) Let’s consider religious learning and growth as the next steps. 

With Rev. Jill McAllister

PS – Come greet and welcome visitor Rev. Lynn Gardner, former UUFC member.  

We sing this every Sunday: “We are here together in this holy moment, and we’re grateful for the winding road that brought us to this place.”   They are lovely words, and they are more important than most of us can imagine.  They speak to the profound human need for gathering, for collective wisdom and encouragement, for being a worshipping community – a congregation.  “Worship”  is a word, and an idea, that has taken generations for UUs to return to.  We need a shared understanding of the movements and the consequences of worship, now more than ever. 

With Rev. Jill McAllister

On the wheel of the year, Beltane comes between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice.  Spring is in full bloom, new growth is all around, and the days continue to lengthen.  The Earth calls us to give attention, to rejoice in beauty, to keep moving with the season.  Join us for a Beltane of Homecoming—not to the past, but to relationship.  When the world feels uncertain, Earth still turns. Let us turn with Her.

In ancient mythologies – for example in Zoroastrian, Hindu and Egytian stories -resurrections of various sorts are common.  Lots of people being killed and coming back to life. Perhaps this human need to imagine coming back to life was always inspired by the facts of Spring, of the awakening of what has been asleep.    For me, the life of the Earth, and our life on the Earth, has long been more important to consider than any particular religious perspective on resurrection.  

Therefore, I will say again as I have said before, that for me Earth Day is much more important than Easter.   Join us to consider how we need to awaken in this season, in this time on the Earth.   

We’ll include the traditional Unitarian Flower Ceremony on this Sunday, as introduced in Prague in the 1930’s by Rev. Norbert Capek.  Please bring at least one flower – with enough stem to add to a vase of water – for each person in your group or family, to help create the ceremony.  

In times such as these, poetry can be strong medicine for our wounds, our worries and our fears.  For me it has long been the most articulate language of religion.  A contemporary poet writes “it is a healing balm that reminds of what is essential, the invisible truths that lie beyond the grasp of reason yet sustain the soul’s deepest longing.”  Not all poetry makes sense to me.  But when it does make sense, when it speaks a language I understand, it is what I live for. April is Poetry Month!  What good timing. 

With Rev. Jill McAllister

Laughter is very important, perhaps even necessary, for human well-being, for the health of relationships and communities.  When times are hard it can be hard to laugh. And, laughter can have an edge – it can be used in ways which demean and hurt people.   In times like these, how can we laugh well?  If by chance you have a good joke to share, please bring it!

With Rev. Jill McAllister

All are invited to stay for the final pre-stewardship pledge drive gathering after the service in the Sanctuary, if you have not already attended one.

We have only begun to articulate what changed for us during the pandemic.  To begin to tell those stories is important, even as or perhaps especially because we are in the midst of more and more every day.  It has been like this before, and yet for us the world this way, right now, is new and hard.  Join us to consider: what did we lose, what did we gain, what did we learn, how are we different and what might that all mean for us now? 

A note: the UUFC parking lot is under reconstruction now, as part of bringing new water lines into the building to support fire sprinklers.  Parking is a challenge!  Most of us will need to park on the streets this week.  Let’s leave the available spaces for those with the highest needs to be close. 

And, for all who might still plan to join us – a Stewardship event will happen after the service, in the Sanctuary.  We’ll connect around our shared covenant, and what the Fellowship is called to be, now.  The Fellowship is all of us. You are needed, and you are invited.  

Where do we come from?  Among other things, from a long line of people who constituted, nurtured, and maintained a liberal religious community, from generation to generation.  “Community” is what so many people mention first when talking about the Fellowship.  Real community – real connections, trust and respect between real persons – does not happen automatically, and cannot merely be provided.  Real community is built and maintained one relationship at a time, day by day, year by year.  You can only find it if you are able and willing to enter in.  So we begin again every week with this:  You are invited!

With Rev. Jill McAllister

Every week we light a chalice as a symbol of our liberal religious heritage and a reminder of our values and ideals – freedom, justice, peace and love. People before us have nurtured and maintained communities around these goals for generations, often in times of struggle, like these times.  In generations to come, we will be the ancestors who took up the struggle, who maintained the community, who kept the flame of the chalice alive.  How do we become those ancestors? 

With Rev. Jill McAllister