Dear America, How Ya Been? is a sermon delivered at South Valley Unitarian Universalist Society December 2018 about my love for the dream of liberty, welcome and respect of individuality that I find at the heart of America and having the hard political conversations to cross the divides we have…
Once there was a dream called America…
July 4…Independence Day…for me today is a day when I remember the dream of America, take stock of where we are in realizing that dream, mourn our shortcomings and hope that in the years to come, we will do more to realize the dream. Once there was a dream…
“Fiercely Protect our Diversity”
I was sitting in flower communion (a UU ceremony started in 1923 by Rev. Norbert Capek in Prague) listening to Rev. Patty Willis talk about the diversity of the flowers, and how they are made more beautiful by their differences. It is the bright, luminous, array of colors of flowers that make…
Reflection from 1936
We UU’s, as a faith, have something to offer national politics and governance. For those who like social reflection out there…and find it fascinating when the past is relevant today…I was just re-reading the 1936 Commission on Appraisal Report “Unitarians Face a New Age” and Chapter 13, on page 307-308…
Sermon: Parable of the Ten Talents
This is a short (about 9 minutes) sermon that I did for spiritual preaching class at Iliff School of Theology. It uses a style of inductive preaching called delaying the story, and actually uses three different stories in connected metaphor to imply a message. If you pay attention you will…
Reflections on Worth and Dignity
This sermon was delivered on July 7, 2013 at South Valley Unitarian Universalist Society during our summer of our seven principles. This was the first in a series of worship services centered around the seven principles of Unitarian Universalism. Our first principle is really one of the foundations of our…
6: The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;
Taking a break out from a scary paper on the definition of religion to share thoughts on this principle. I just wrote to a fellow seminarian the phrase, “God is not required for us to be good to one-another.” and realized that I wanted to connect it to this principle.…
5: The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
I am going to take today’s news to reflect on this principle, because news today demonstrates why we live with such commitment to this principle. Yes, it is hard to organize our congregations democratically. It can be hard for individual members of our communities to remain educated and informed enough…
4: A free and responsible search for truth and meaning
Our lives are not small, shallow moments of consumption, consumerism, and entertainment. The message humming through our modern world would have us believe otherwise; everywhere we turn we see images of people with more than we have, better looks, more money, having more fun, driving better cars, living in better…
Compassion Sermon
After the Emma the Dog experience, our worship team asked if I would be willing to do a sermon on compassion. Here it is. It is based around our second principle, “Justice, equity and compassion in human relations.” I think it was well received this morning. Enjoy. 2011 Compassion Sermon