sermon summaries

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

Where do we come from? From a long line of reformers and innovators, courageous dissenters and broad-minded humanitarians, among others. The liberal religious tradition includes people in all times and places. It has never been the dominant culture, and has often been a dangerous path. And now? And here? What are this tradition and its high aims worth to us, today?

With Rev. Jill McAllister

Following the service, all who are interested are invited to join in another “Transition Talk” beginning at 11:45 in the Sanctuary.

Unitarian Universalist Peter Mayer has been singing and songwriting full-time for 30 years, performing across the U.S. and beyond, including in many UU congregations and gatherings.  His songs are part of our hymnals and services, including the well-loved  “Blue Boat Home.”  In this time when art and beauty and singing together are essential to our well-being, we are thrilled to welcome Peter back to the Fellowship. There will be more music than speaking – the service will be primarily a concert, to feed our souls.  We are not selling tickets!  However, if you are interested, able and willing to support Pete’s art, and would like to contribute the price of a ticket, or more, you are welcome to do so, at uucorvallis.org, Donate, Gift to A Different Fund, Peter Mayer.

Fellowship member Blaise Ntakarutimana (now Kevin Shimineza) joins Jill McAllister to tell about his journey as a UU refugee from Burundi, where he was active in a humanist organization and in the newly-established Unitarian congregation in Bujumbura, and was thinking about the possiblity of ministry. Then his life changed when he had to flee Burundi. He’ll talk this morning about his life as a new US citizen in these troubling times, and his hopes for what his experience can offer to others.

And how do you know you know it? But even more important is “what difference does it make? Martin Luther King Jr said “shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.” And that “nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” The minister/writer Frederick Buechner once said “faith is not being sure where you’re going, but going anyway.” Which leads us to consider the relationship between knowledge and faith, which isn’t as simple as we might assume.

For me, Black History Month is a time for intentionality, for reflection, for learning. I consider it to be a responsibility – not an option. I am dedicated to the creation and sustaining of an anti-racist multi-cultural society, even though I don’t always know what that means for me or what the next steps are. Like the song says – “One more step, we will take one more step….” I hope you’ll join me.
With Rev. Jill McAllister

Here at the mid-point between Solstice and Equinox, here at the frontier of new assaults on freedom and democracy, here in the stirring of the season of new life, we can find wisdom and inspiration for how to live now by considering the ancient traditions of Imbolc. The life force is moving and growing as always, in many unseen ways. It is the creative force in everything that is getting ready to be born, sprout, bud and grow. What practices and perspectives can help us as we aim and strive to help life, justice, and freedom emerge?

With the Wheel of the Year team and Rev. Jill McAllister