Since Christmas Eve fell on Sunday this year, there were no services Christmas Eve Sunday morning. However, there were three services in the evening. At the 5pm service, geared to children, their parents and grandparents, each child received his or her own candle for the service. At the 7pm and 7pm services, both Rev. Bode … Continue reading Christmas Eve Candlelight Services
(Third Sunday of Christmas) Sometimes, as poet Mary Oliver writes, “The great door opens a crack, a hint of the truth is given – so bright it is almost a death, a joy we can’t bear – and then it is gone.” This sermon is based on a personal experience of such an occasion.
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Note: “How We Love”, the closing song sung by the congregation, is composed by Beth Nielsen Chapman, on Twitter: @bncmusic and Instagram: @beth_nielsen_chapman, and is added with her permission.
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(First Sunday of Christmas) For a number of years I’ve wanted to bring the research and ruminations of Dr. Gary Nelson on science and religion and matter and mind to the pulpit by way of an interview with him. If this interview is going to happen, it needs to be soon. So this first Sunday … Continue reading Spirit, Matter, Consciousness: A Conversation
Thanksgiving Day Sunday. Some previous sermons I’ve given on Thanksgiving Sunday at QUUF have been titled “The Origin of Gratitude” or “The Basis of Gratitude” or “The Necessity of Gratitude” or “The Way of Gratitude” or “Can Gratitude Be Taught?” or “Suppose You Don’t Feel Gratitude”. This sermon will pick up aspects of a number of these previous sermons and is simply titled “Gratitude!”.
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Why “just say ‘no’” doesn’t work … and a consideration of what might work.
Five years ago I, along with our QUUF choir and other musicians, shared in one of my all-time favorite Halloween services, a service that explored the presence of “the other side” through Andrew Lloyd Webber’s entrancing musical, The Phantom of the Opera. Ever since that service, I’ve wanted to revisit that opera … and this is the year to do it!
For most of my ministerial career I served an independent religiously liberal congregation. In more recent years I have served three Unitarian Universalist congregations. In this sermon I will try to pull together my thoughts on the liberal approach in religion in general and, in particular, the Unitarian Universalist approach to religion.
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Forty years as a minister, ten more in preparation: what I have learned (and unlearned), where has it brought me?
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On this Sunday as we begin a new program year at QUUF and return to two services, you will have a chance to ask yourself from eight different angles, “Do I like my life?” This is also “Signup Sunday,” your first opportunity to sign-up for upcoming Adult Learning Programs (ALPs), Covenant Groups, and Affinity Groups.
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Our annual Water Service happens September 3 and honors water in all its forms. It also honors our coming-together as a QUUF community. For this tradition, you are invited to collect a small amount of water from a place that is sacred to you, near or far – a mountain creek, the bay or lagoon, a bathtub, a birdbath or garden hose – and bring a little of it to mingle with waters QUUFers have offered for many years. You are also invited to add your water with a word of what you bring to our congregation this year – hope, care, grief, help, strength, song, joy, etc.
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