Lighting the Chalice: Sermons from the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Berks County

This morning we explore the ways we can create beauty in community from what we already have – from empty lots, thorn bushes, and a little bit of faith.

The work of liberation is just that, work. Right? Yes, and no. Sometimes learning to let go – of a bad mood, a grudge, an addiction – can be just the thing we need to realize justice, truth, and freedom.

Join us for a celebration of Earth Day and a call to sacred activism.

This morning we’ll explore Unitarian Universalist minister Rev. Theresa Soto’s words: “All of us need all of us to make it.” Right now, we are witnessing human interconnectedness in new ways that are heightening awareness that none of us can be truly free until all of us are free.

There’s an old story about a pot that gets broken and pours forth wisdom. Where does your wisdom come from? This morning we will explore the many containers of wisdom–stories, practices, other people, and ourselves.

Special note: This sermon was recorded during a virtual church service. Members of the congregation came together online to connect even in this time of uncertainty and social distancing due to the COVID-19 outbreak. A central task of religious community is to form connections, to create living bridges with and to others. Today we’ll explore the many ways our community builds bridges of understanding, relationship, and justice.

Ancient wisdom advises us to listen to our inner voice, the still small voice. When we do, we come closer to our own true nature and learn to honor the wisdom within.

Special guest: Rev. Israel Buffardi Hope has been called the anchor of the soul, yet hope is hard to find today for many of us. Together we will reflect on hope as an imperfect practice of working for our ideals, as they pass from generation to generation.

Special guest: Paula Cole-Jones Whether we consider faith formation, growth, social justice and/or dismantling white supremacy, Unitarian Universalists could use an identity update. This presentation embraces who we are and challenges who we think we are. Seeing ourselves as a Community of Communities changes our future and it is key to the Beloved Community. Paula Cole Jones is the founder of ADORE (A Dialogue on Race & Ethnicity), a former president of DRUUMM (Diverse and Revolutionary Unitarian Universalist Multicultural Ministries) and our congregation’s Primary Contact in the Central East Region of the Unitarian Universalist Association.

Reading: from Welcoming the Unwelcome by Pema Chödrön What are the practices that can help us build resiliency in terms of personal struggle and national or global crisis? Today we’ll share and seek some practical guidance for developing resiliency practices in our daily lives.

The spiritual practice of generosity helps us and our community come into full bloom. When rooted in spiritual practice, giving has the power to liberate the giver and profoundly impact others. This morning we’ll share stories of how generosity has helped us flower.

When asked about their class background, most people in the United States describe themselves as middle class. Doctors, hourly workers, Ivy League graduates alike do this. Yet our different backgrounds offer different points of view and reference, and among UUs we are often reluctant to share or acknowledge these differences. Today we’ll share stories of class as a way to make space for more ways of being in our faith community.

Unitarian Universalist has 7 beloved principles that guide our ethical and spiritual commitments. The 7 principles, however, have not adequately dismantled racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions. This morning in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, we’ll explore a proposed 8th principle and consider how it would help us build a diverse and multicultural Beloved Community.

Jane Palmer, Worship Associate 2020 will not be an easy year. We need to maintain our sanity, our courage, and our compassion, and we need to do so in a manner consistent with our moral principles. With integrity, in other words. Paradoxically, our strength lies in that most-maligned of all interests, self-interest. We are at our most powerful when we find our own stories in those of others and realize we have a stake in the game.

This morning we reflect on the way religious experiences open us to awe and wonder.

Nature fills us with awe. Standing beneath the stars or on the top of a mountain or both can leave us breathless and more alive than we ever imagined possible. Join us as we explore nature’s essential role in our lives and our spiritual community.

It is increasingly difficult to find silence in our world, to discover places where we can be in solitude away from the noisiness, busyness, and distractions of life. This morning we’ll explore the need and longing our spirits have for moments of hushing.

Guest speaker: John Pavlovitz Individually and as a nation we are experiencing a shaking. We now have the opportunity to be peace givers and not fear bringers, and to learn, as did the followers of Jesus, how to endure the turbulence and how, at times, to become the turbulence. How can we leverage our lives to bring peace to those who are shaking? John Pavlovitz is a writer, pastor, and activist from Wake Forest, North Carolina. His blog, “Stuff That Needs To Be Said,” reaches a diverse worldwide audience. A 20-year veteran in the trenches of local church ministry, John is committed to equality, diversity, and justice—both inside and outside faith communities. In 2017, he released his first book, A Bigger Table. His newest book is Hope and Other Superpowers.

Religion is a "chosen pilgrimage," says UU minister John Buehrens. We choose a community of faith. And we choose to return to it, over and over again, coming back to where we can be renewed by spiritual connection, celebration, and inspiration. Today we'll consider what calls us back to Unitarian Universalism, again and again.

The expectations we bring to the practice of forgiveness can help heal wounds and resentment or lead to bitterness and anger. Join us today as we explore the ways we can manage our expectations in order to improve emotional health and exercise goodness.

Respecting the worth and dignity of others is a core value for Unitarian Universalists. This morning we'll consider the ways that moving beyond our binary ways of thinking and being--beyond good and bad, right and wrong, black and white, male and female--can create more spaciousness and grace in our relationships.

What expectations do we bring to our lives--to spiritual community, work, family? This morning we'll explore when to let go of them and when to set greater expectations.

Matt Owen, Worship Associate The Buddha said: “Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule.” It is not just "those people" who struggle with hatred, we all do. How do we take the pain at the injustice we witness and resist diverting it into our own blame and hatred of others? These times are crying out for a deepened dedication to love. Cultivating compassion for ourselves and others, is an act of social justice and a way we can directly contribute to the evolution of consciousness in our world.

A desire for belonging brings many of us into spiritual community. This morning we'll consider how we can build a living bridge that allows us to be connected to each other across the generations and to something greater than ourselves.

Rev. Sage Olnick, Worship Associate This Sunday we will explore Joyful Play as a spiritual practice. Even in the midst of injustice and unrest, we can have joy.

This Sunday we will explore what 'Life in the Shape of Justice' truly looks like when inspired on a personal and individual level.

Worship Associate: Rev. Sage Olnick This Sunday we will explore how Mindful Embodiment can help us be our most authentic selves.

Service led by members of the Berks UU LGBTQ Caucus, exploring what it means to be a people of pride.

Rev. Sage Olnick, Affiliated Community Minister This Sunday we will explore what it means to make space in our minds and hearts for what is already there through reflection, music, and a Glitter Blessing.

Tracie Greth, Worship Associate This service in inspired by the word “centering “which is an open UU-compatible word that can cover many forms of meditation or prayer. It is also based on a comment made by Rev. Fees that there must be many centers. The word “center” will be used for those things that truly matter, those things that give meaning to worship and to life.

Traditional Western ideals of beauty tend to emphasize symmetry, orderliness, and harmony. Eastern worldviews center beauty on transience and imperfection, known as wabi sabi in Japanese. This morning we explore how wabi sabi beauty might enlarge our appreciation of our world.

Today's service is a celebration of the beauty of the universe.

Khalil Gibran says, “Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.” This morning we will explore how the light of the heart's beauty can help to create a better world. This service will also celebrate the beauty that our religious education teachers, helpers, and mentors bring to light, and we will take our collection for our congregation's social justice programming.

Is there a big (or small) question you are grappling with right now? Do you wonder why the universe exists, whether animals have souls, if there is a divine source, what you are being called to do with your life, or whether to forgive someone? This morning we will reflect on some of the questions we are most curious about.

For Unitarian Universalists, doubt is a holy gift and companion of faith. Join us as we consider how doubt, rather than certainty, fosters wonder, curiosity, and a sense of urgency.

Henry David Thoreau said that if we don't keep pace with our companions perhaps it is because we hear a different drummer. How might we cultivate a sense of curiosity for the ways we each move to our own music?

For those who are raised in Unitarian Universalist communities, Unitarian Universalist values are in their DNA. For those who come to Unitarian Universalism from other religious traditions or none, Unitarian Universalist values are typically an expression of what they already believe. In a sense, UU is in their blood too. Those newer to UU express this as the experience of discovering that they were Unitarian Universalist all along but didn’t know it, or as a feeling of coming home. So whether raised inside or outside Unitarian Universalist communities, for those who become members, UU is part of who they are. It becomes part of their identity.

READING: excerpt from Hope and Other Superpowers by John Pavlovitz "We all love to see superheroes being born in pages or on-screen. There’s something magical about those beginnings that moves us. . . . It’s thrilling to watch human beings mutating from nondescript, regular schlubs like you and me into the monumental stuff of legend, to see them struggle to comprehend the gravity of the moment, to recognize the responsibility of access to such great power—and ultimately to run, swing, or fly headlong into their destiny. Over and over again we line up to breathe in these mythologies, because we love the idea of being thrust into stratospheric glory instead of being stuck here on the ground with the rest of the mere mortals and gawking bystanders..." The American Trappist monk Thomas Merton said that “there is in all things . . . a hidden wholeness.” The Gospel of Thomas, one of the gospels that did not make it into the official Bible, teaches that “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”

Celtic spirituality is a source of wisdom for modern-day seekers. Celtic concepts, such as the sacredness of the everyday, love of nature, and the mystical presence of the divine, support the inner journey. In this service, we'll explore how to make Celtic wisdom our own.

Part of our community's mission is to encourage each other on our individual spiritual journeys. And yet we share in this one UU faith. Today we'll explore the religious diversity and multiple sources of Unitarian Universalism.

Each of us has a story to tell about our life's journey. And that story is always changing. This morning we'll embrace the power of describing those stories in six words.

Mary Oliver writes that "there are moments that cry out to be fulfilled." Oliver was describing moments when we set aside caution because what we do might save a life, might save our own lives, or the planet. Today we'll reflect on what those moments are in our individual lives and in our church.

This morning we'll explore how to overcome self-doubt. Is it best to take a leap of faith or baby steps? How can we overcome our fears and flex our "I believe in myself" muscles?

With Jane Palmer We’ve lived two years under the Trump administration, two months since an historic “blue wave” upset the power balance in Washington, and two weeks since the wheels came off the bus.  The intensity of our public life has taken a toll, and it’s natural to long for an easier, softer way of life. But when everything we hold dear is on the line, and the path forward is lined with fear and anger, we have to find new ways of being – and doing.

A contemplative service with Matt Owen, worship associate, which will explore the intersections of meditative practice with the spirituality of the end.

Celebrate the Christmas holiday with a lively service filled with song, readings, reflections, and story for all ages. This week we share our full service, and this morning we light our fourth Advent candle for love.

Thanksgiving is a great time to renew the practice of gratitude. Come and celebrate the season with our Breads of the World ceremony and the story of Stone Soup.

Memories can define us and set us free. They can also limit our ability to see other perspectives and keep us from being able to reframe our own narrative. Join us this morning as we reflect on how memory helps and sometimes hinders us in creating who we are as a people and as individuals. Our offering today will benefit the Reading Public Library.

This morning we explore what it means to be part of a religious community that challenges and inspires us, that heals and holds us. New members will join the church, and all members will be celebrated for their years of devotion to UU Berks.

Companioning means being present, listening, and bearing witness to another person's struggles without trying to fix things. This morning we'll explore the ways that companioning supports the pastoral needs of those who are grieving and in pain, and also leads to social change.

Another week. Another tough week. The Supreme Court struck a blow to unions and collective bargaining. US Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy tendered his resignation. The House rejected a bill to protect the Dreamers.   How can your resilience, your humanity, serve as your spiritual practice in times of trial?