Sermons

READING: When Great Trees Fall,  by Maya Angelou When great trees fall,  rocks on distant hills shudder,  lions hunker down  in tall grasses,  and even elephants  lumber after safety. When great trees fall  in forests,  small things recoil into silence,  their senses  eroded beyond fear. When great souls die,  the air around us becomes  light, rare, sterile.  We breathe, briefly.  Our eyes, briefly,  see with  a hurtful clarity.  Our memory, suddenly sharpened,  examines,  gnaws on kind words ...

Let’s reflect together for a moment: What made it possible for us to be here today? Think specifically about things other people—and other beings—did that made it possible for you and I to be here today, worshipping together. From my end, a lot of things had to happen for me to be here in Watertown, instead of Florida. For starters, someone had to recognize my wife’s ability and offer her a job. But before that, there had to be many years of educational activity up here and a down there, too....

READING: “For Calling the Spirit Back from Wandering the Earth in Its Human Feet”  by Muskoke/Creek Nation poet Joy Harjo Put down that bag of potato chips, that white bread, that bottle of pop. Turn off that cellphone, computer, and remote control. Open the door, then close it behind you. Take a breath offered by friendly winds. They travel the earth gathering essences of plants to clean. Give it back with gratitude. If you sing it will give your spirit lift to fly to the stars’ ears and...

READING: To have without holding, by Marge Piercy Learning to love differently is hard, love with the hands wide open, love with the doors banging on their hinges, the cupboard unlocked, the wind roaring and whimpering in the rooms rustling the sheets and snapping the blinds that thwack like rubber bands in an open palm. It hurts to love wide open stretching the muscles that feel as if they are made of wet plaster, then of blunt knives, then of sharp knives. It hurts to thwart the reflexes of...

Reading: Blessing at the Burning Bush, Rev. Jan Richardson You will have to decide if you want this— want the blessing that comes to you on an ordinary day when you are minding your own path, bent on the task before you that you have done a hundred times, a thousand. You will have to choose for yourself whether you will attend to the signs, whether you will open your eyes to the searing light, the heat, whether you will open your ears, your heart to the voice that knows your name, that tells...

Reading: From Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds, by Adrienne Maree Brown. “When we are engaged in acts of love, we humans are at our best and most resilient. The love in romance that makes us want to be better people, the love of children that makes us change our whole lives to meet their needs, the love of family that makes us drop everything to take care of them, the love of community that makes us work tirelessly with broken hearts. Perhaps humans’ core function is love....

Reading: blessing the boats By Lucille Clifton may the tide that is entering even now the lip of our understanding carry you out beyond the face of fear may you kiss the wind then turn from it certain that it will love your back     may you open your eyes to water water waving forever and may you in your innocence sail through this to that Reflection and Ritual: “Our Beautiful Blue Boat Home” Here’s something fun: did you know that UUs have nicknamed a particular hymn that we love to sing the...

“Radical Kinship” READING: The reading today was written by UU minister and celebrated activist Rev. Theresa Soto and was published in her 2019 book, “Spilling the Light: Meditations on Hope and Resilience.” “The Spark Between” There must be fuel. There must be a spark, and there must be oxygen. We have principles and ethics. The fuel of the fire we would light. The spark is what passes between us, along with our aliveness, our possibility. Spirit moving in us is our clear invitation—...

READING: Adapted from “The Moor,” by Welsh poet R.S. Thomas It was like a church to me. I entered it on soft foot, Breath held like a cap in the hand. It was quiet. What God was there made [themselves] felt, Not listened to, in clean colours That brought a moistening of the eye, In movement of the wind over grass. There were no prayers said… I walked on, Simple and poor, while the air crumbled And broke on me generously as bread. SERMON: Last night, enjoying the meal we shared together, and...

This morning’s reading comes to us from contemplative writer and thinker Thomas Merton. The language has been adjusted to be more gender inclusive. From “No Man is an Island”: “…There must be a time of day when [a person] who makes plans forgets [their] plans, and acts as if [they] had no plans at all. There must be a time of day when the man who has to speak falls very silent. And his mind forms no more propositions, and he asks himself: Did they have a meaning? There must be a time when the...