Each morning over coffee my mother reads the obituaries published in her local paper. She does not know the vast majority of these newly dead people, though she is compelled to read about their lives. Some variation of this ritual is repeated millions of times around the world each day. This sermon explores obituaries – … Continue reading Reading Obituaries during Morning Coffee
The winter holidays incorporate lights of all kinds, from menorah candles and the eastern star to New Year’s sparklers and solstice bonfires. On this first morning after the long night of Winter Solstice, our sermon explores the myriad lights of the holiday season, especially the light inside us all.
Music: Salish Sea Choir accompanied by Ikue Goldstein
Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the winter holiday season. This sermon explores some of the 10,000 ways we give thanks and say grace for family, friend, fellowship, and roasted Brussels sprouts.
Music: QUUF Salish Sea Choir, accompanied by Ikue Goldstein
You wake up at the crossroads as the sun begins its forever arc across the broad heavens. Noon you think decisively East. Evening you feel a tug West. As the sun begins to sink below the horizon you resolve to flip a coin. This sermon stares hard at that airborne, spinning coin and wonders in … Continue reading Heads or Tails at the Crossroads
The Moth is a cultural phenomenon where people tell true-life stories by heart to a live audience. The Moth is also a popular podcast and NPR radio program. At the end of each broadcast, the host reminds all listeners that Moth stories are “true as remembered and affirmed by the storytellers.” This sermon explores the … Continue reading True as Remembered and Affirmed
The annual Favorite Poem Service is a QUUF summer tradition that combines personal story-telling and meaningful poems. The format allows for intimate sharing and deep listening: A QUUF member or friend appears before the congregation to share a short personal story why a particular poem is important in their life, and then they read or recite … Continue reading Annual Favorite Poem Service
In this bright dark world of beauty and tumult, poet Theodore Roethke said, “What we need is more people who specialize in the impossible.” Why would anyone bother with the impossible? This sermon explores the realm of impossible, and what powers we need to harness to become that specialist our world so desperately needs. (Note: … Continue reading Specialize in the Impossible
The poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote, “If the angel deigns to come, it will be because you have convinced [them], not by tears, but by your humble resolve to be always beginning: to be a beginner.” As winter darkness deepens during the advent season, let’s join those three wise men trudging across the desert in search of a new … Continue reading Love: The Humble Resolve to Begin
In her best-selling memoir Pastrix, Lutheran minister Nadia Bolz-Weber writes, “As much as I desperately wanted to be a Unitarian, I couldn’t, because what I needed was a specific divine source of reconciliation and wholeness, a source that is connected to me in love, but does not come from inside me.” This sermon imagines a … Continue reading Would If I Could
Within the United Nations building in New York City is a meditation room that contains a massive block of iron ore illuminated from above by a single beam of light. In the midst of the world’s Alpha City, this simple room is dedicated to silence and thoughtful introspection. The famed UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld … Continue reading The Altar of Iron and Light
