Preaching
One of my deep joys is leading a worship service that touches people and leaves them with a somewhat different perspective on the world. As of July 2011, I have led eleven services in four different Unitarian Universalist congregations. I would like to share the following services with other congregations:
Memorial Day as an African-American Holiday. Most people do not know that the first Memorial Day was organized by African-Americans in Charleston, South Carolina, and occurred just sixteen days after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. Learning this history, and its implications, makes this holiday much more meaningful.
Loving My Country. UUs are often reluctant to talk about patriotism. Nationalism can fit uncomfortably with our affirmation of the worth and dignity of all people, and we can be painfully aware of harmful things that the United States has done. Yet love of country is also the foundation of citizenship, effective democracy, and caring about other Americans – and of asking our country to live up to its ideals.
Encountering Islam. I have been studying Islam since 2006. What can a UU learn from such an encounter?
Gardening as a Spiritual Practice. Being a gardener teaches many lessons about life and death, power and powerlessness, and what it means to heal the earth.
The Changing Meanings of Marriage. Most Americans get married, but modern marriage is a complicated and contradictory thing. We ask so much of marriage. And political debates about marriage reflect, I believe, deep fears about the nature of freedom in an uncertain world.
The links lead to sermon texts, but I want to make sure readers realize that a worship service is far more than a sermon text. Compared what happens in worship, words on a screen are impoverished, devoid of the tones and rhythms and physical presence that help give them depth and power.
In addition, I always select music and other elements of the service to enhance the sermon – not to pound home a single univocal theme, but to echo, deepen, contradict, raise questions, provide other perspectives, comfort, reassure, and trouble. The sermon texts include notes about these other elements, but reading is no substitute for a worship service.