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Sermons from 2007

December 24, 2007: “Xmas Songs of the Soul”

Opening WordsChristmas Childrenby Edward Frost I suspect that the Christmas Spirit is Memory–Personal, yet universal,Shared collections of shards of other daysPieced together in this season by common consent,making the otherwise commercial venture religious,Communal,making it Holy as,by Memory we are re-created,Born again.So the bittersweet of this time,Since Memory and that recalled are, at best,Mixed blessings.I sit before our Christmas treeWith years of former…

December 23, 2007: “Trees, Stars, Songs, and Stories Children’s Xmas Eve Service”

Second reading:  “O Simplicitas” by Madeleine L’Engle; hymn — “What Child Is This” An angel came to meAnd I was unpreparedTo be what God was using.Mother was I to be.A moment I despaired,Thought briefly of refusing.The angel knew I heard.According to God’s WordI bowed to this strange choosing. A palace should have beenThe birthplace of a king(I had no way of knowing).We…

December 31, 2007: “New Year’s Eve Service-Losing Your Baggage on Purpose”

It seemed appropriate to use our favorite UU folksinger, Pete Seeger’s adaptation of Ecclesiastes in his song, ‘Turn, Turn, Turn.’: I always read from Ecclesiastes when I lead memorial services, and always point out something not usually addressed. But this passage ends with a question: ‘What gain has the worker from his or her toil?’ What is not usually included in funerals…

December 2, 2007: “Believing What You Know Ain’t So”

A mother tells a story of Xmas stress. Preparing for a large Christmas Eve family gathering, she had been giving orders like a drill sergeant: ‘pick up your things! Don’t get your clothes dirty! Put away those toys.’ Her four year old daughter had been underfoot, so she sent her to the next room to play with the Nativity set. As she…

November 11, 2007: “What Counts?”

Albert Einstein’s famous quote came to a member’s mind who saw the title listed earlier.; ‘Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted’ And I like quoting Einstein, arguably one of the most brilliant and unorthodox minds of the 20th century and few us even understand what he really did! He sometimes sounded more…

November 4, 2007: “Balancing the Holiday Budget: Surviving The Happy Holidays When You’re Not”

Perhaps the most agreed upon part of these upcoming holiday is that there is lots of food. Theologian Erma Bombeck once said that the most remarkable thing about her mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found. Some of us believe that about our Thanksgiving meal. There are those practical…

October 30, 2007: “Roberts Rules of Rituals”

Reading:“ROBERT’S RULES OF RITUALS” While UU minister Robert Fulgham is best known for the best seller, Everything I know I learned in Kindergarten, his most ‘religious’ book is From Beginning to End: The Rituals of Our Lives (1995) Some of his “Propositions:” ‘Rituals are timed by beats of the heart, not ticks of the clock.Most of our major holidays are connected to…