Unity Church-unitarian's Sermon Podcasts

Some of life’s important rites of passage come to us as a matter of chronological growth, development and an increasing ability to assume responsibility. Other transformations come to us much more subtly without fanfare.

We are transformed by forces outside ourselves but we can welcome or resist those forces.

From the days of the Pilgrims and Puritans, our free-church tradition has been shaped and transformed by history, maintaining its core message while responding to the social and spiritual signs of the times. Taking a look back into our past, Lissa Gundlach and Worship Associate Amy Kujawski explore directions of our shared faith in a quickly changing world.

Easter Sunday homily from Rev. Rob Eller-Isaacs. Includes the much requested A Story for All Ages delivered by Kerri Meyer.

It is so easy to be captured by the myth of progress. It’s not that there is no such thing as progress but it is neither inevitable nor orderly. As young people we imagine our personal lives will conform to certain patterns of progress. And as a culture we tend toward the assumption that progress is "onward and upward forever." There are aspects of the myth both personal and collective that need to be broken. Janne Eller-Isaacs and Worship Associate Hal Freshly will lead the service.

Welcome the Rev. Robert Balint, the 2009-10 Balazs Scholar from Starr King School for the Ministry. Balint is minister of the Unitarian Church in Meszko, the alabaster village in Transylvania where Francis Balazs for whom the fellowship is named once served. In addition to his theological studies, Balint has completed a degree in sociology at Kolozsvár Babes Bolyai University. He has been involved in the Unitarian youth movement and worked with local social and charity organizations. With others, he has started the Balázs Ferenc Historical Preservation Project, designed to preserve and promote Francis Balázs's spiritual and material heritage.

It is often difficult to find meaning in the midst of brokenness.  Perhaps a deeper question is attempting to find the Sacred in the midst of suffering.  What, if anything, is holy or redemptive in suffering?  How can our lives be changed for the better from our brokenness?  The age old question of “Where is God in my suffering?” is not easily answered, if answered at all.  How we respond to brokenness can be painful, as well as beautiful.  Join Coordinator of Youth and Campus Ministries Luke Stevens-Royer and Worship Associate Katy Taylor for a service on brokenness and compassion.

Reflections on scarcity and abundance.

For more than a hundred years Unity Church has faced south. We have been a liberal church for old St. Paul. Our congregation has largely come from the nearby neighborhoods of Ramsey and Crocus Hills. What might it mean for us to turn north? Caritas, the fourth form of love, calls us to come to know the neighbors we have yet to know.

When a person can "Friend" and "Unfriend" someone on the internet without ever interacting, what has friendship come to mean? Might it have something to do with the idea of face-to-face "presence?" Rev. Karen Hering explore dimensions of the Greek form of love known as philia, or friendship, in building spiritual communities.

A Standing on the Side of Love Valentine's Day service.

All our wise and heartfelt words amount to dust and ashes if we don’t live out our values in the world. Rob and Worship Associate Amy Kujawski will begin our series of services on love by taking a long, hard look at the way of love the Greeks knew as agape.

It is so hard to tell a decent story. It is even harder to tell a story that is actually true. By what power, by what authority do we tell the stories of our lives. The private stories, the public stories… The stories that insist on being told… With what strength of heart, with what sense of courage do we share our witness of the world? And, more deeply, what is the power of our honest word? Join us for exploration of courage and excellence in public life.

It doesn’t seem to make logical sense. How does it take courage to let go, to surrender? What are the costs and benefits for individuals and congregations of having the courage to surrender, to let go?

Martin Luther King, Jr. stood in the line of the prophets. Unitarian Universalist theologist James Luther Adams was a passionate advocate for the "priest and prophethood of all believers." This year we honor the memory and ministry of Dr. King by asking how we all might be both priests and prophets.

Is it possible to break out of a pattern of living that doesn’t fit any longer? People all over the world and even in our community can testify to the courage it takes to do so. Explore the dimensions of courageous and authentic living.

We begin each new year with a memorial service for those who have died in the previous year. Rob, Janne, and Lissa eulogize men and women whose lives have shaped the world of art or politics, literature or science.

On the Christian holiday calendar, between the joyful celebrations of the birth of Jesus and the wonder of Epiphany, there is an event entitled the "Massacre of the Innocents," which marks Herod’s ruthless and violent search for the baby Jesus. How do we stand against violence, especially done to the most vulnerable in our world? Lissa Gundlach illuminates gifts and challenges of this difficult text.

This is a season of preparation, of anticipation and waiting for new birth and new light to appear once more. Explore the dimensions of preparation for the rebirth of the holy within, among and beyond us.

What Are You Waiting For? — Rob Eller-Isaacs In the season set aside for waiting Rob and Worship Associate Ann Kirby McGill offer us a service intended to provide an overview of theologies of incarnation. Why would God choose to put on flesh and walk among us? What do we really mean when we talk about the God within us?