Unity Church-unitarian's Sermon Podcasts

The life of the spirit is all about triage: attending to this thing and then that thing, each in its time, with care. But the planet spins beneath our feet, sometimes careening wildly, and our days are disjointed and dizzying. When the known world flies apart, what holds you in place? Join us for pancake brunch after the service. 

There were some audio issues with this recording. The audio gets better at the 30 seconds mark. We are all familiar with the story of Henry David Thoreau and his two-year experiment on a plot of land owned by his teacher, Ralph Waldo Emerson. We are less familiar with the story of Harriet Jacobs, Thoreau’s contemporary, who also, alone, entered a space that cut her off from society, and who also wrote a book about that experience. A look at these two experiences and the national appetite for one story, to be told in one, specific way in every school in the country for almost 200 years, and for the other not to be told at all gives us insights into the dangers of a single story, dangers that contort our history and uphold power in the same hands. Over, and over, and over again.

As hostile laws are adopted across the county, queer families and individuals are making their way to states like Minnesota. We will paint a picture of what is happening, how Unitarian Universalists are connected, and supporting the effort to find safety and sanctuary for those who are migrating to Minnesota.

This service begins with a reflection by Sara Ford followed by Kevin Ward and Jess Goff. What happens when a book changes your life? You buy copies for your friends? Or maybe you talk about it in a summer service. In 2016, the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote The Book of Joy. Some of their ideas are weird and unattainable (like — Can you really train your mind to have mental immunity? Can you really have empathy for your enemies?), but then again maybe joy can happen. Jess Goff and Kevin Ward will share their favorite passages and meditate aloud how this book has transformed them. 

This sermon podcast begins with a reflection by worship associate Chris Russert. In a consumer society focused on limited resources and rugged individualism, many are left feeling estranged from one another and numb. How might we move from a culture of scarcity towards abundance, understanding the power of sharing, and embracing our human vulnerability as a strength? Each of us can help and be helped, and through our empathy can find and build bridges of resilience, community, and hope.

What does it mean to have a conversation or an encounter with another human that invites the divine into relationship? When we talk about “going deep quickly” and knowing each other “in all our fullness,” what do we mean? Why are these things important? And what do Herr Buber and Mr. Douglass have to teach us about all this?

This sermon podcast begins with a reflection by worship associate Caswell Burr. There is a great, interconnected web of existence, a great and entrancing mystery, and we are starting to see more of the effects of our neglect for that interdependence. How can our UU faith and principles help guide us through the growing imperative to change our relationship with the natural world?

This Sunday reflects on the milestone events since Rev. Kathleen’s arrival at Unity Church in September 2022: successes, missed opportunities and work that is still in the making. 

Fatherhood has changed a lot since the first celebration of Father’s Day in 1910, as have ideas about masculinity. Worship associates Charlie Caswell, Chris Russert, and Isaac Fried will reflect on their own experiences of fathers, and the joys and the challenges of navigating maleness amidst a culture that insists on binary thinking. ​

We are well aware of the realties of climate change; we see evidence of the changing earth on an almost daily basis. Yet climate fatigue — the feeling of helplessness and hopelessness is also evident. How do we cultivate a sustainable level of energy and care for the environment when our own resources are often thin? How is that climate of care practiced within, among and beyond us? ​

Beethoven was completely deaf when he embarked on his masterpiece, Ode to Joy, and it’s a tragedy that he never heard a single note of it except inside his head. At many times in our lives, finding joy may seem impossible. Life can seem painful or tragic, and joy completely out of reach. Not ignoring the truths of the tragedies and challenges of our world, how can we cultivate more joy in our lives?

Ukraine. Israel and Palestine. Haiti. Eritrea. Ethiopia. There are so many places around the globe where violence and the war that follows results in an endless cycle of retaliation and devastation. On this Memorial Day Sunday, we honor those who have died in past wars, while maintaining the hope that we can learn the things that make for peace. 

A flower celebration Sunday homily.

This sermon podcast begins with a reflection from worship associate Sara Ford. On this Mother’s Day, amidst rising conflicts near and far, let us lean into inspiring stories from our global Unitarian community and ancestors, including Dr. Lotta Hitchmanova, a Jewish journalist from Prague who spoke out against the Nazis and then dedicated her life to humanitarian efforts. Dr. Lotta helped literally thousands of children impacted by the second World War and the decades following it, she worked with the Unitarian Service Committee in Europe and then established a branch in Canada. 

Coming of Age Sunday celebrates the signature year-long journey of our ninth grade youth, transitioning from the inherited faith of childhood to the adult journey of faith, and marked by youth sharing their statement of faith or credo. 

This sermon begins with worship associate Ari Giles reading "Good Bones" by Maggie Smith.

There is a voice within you which no-one, not even you, has ever heard. Give yourself the opportunity of silence and begin to develop your listening in order to hear, deep within yourself, the music of your own spirit.  — John O’Donohue, Anam Cara In a world full of distractions, screens, video bingeing, and climate unraveling, paying deep attention to our inner lives — and the wisdom and music that is there — is critical. Tuning in and encountering the deepest parts of ourselves can help us unearth the hidden treasures, insights, and clues within that can lead to more aliveness, joy, and abundance. This Sunday, we’ll explore concrete practices that can help us tune into the “song that is our life.”  After two decades in Unitarian Universalist ministry, Rev. Justin Schroeder and his wife, Juliana Keen, launched Holding Space for Change, a practice that accompanies and supports people through life transitions. They provide spiritual direction/accompaniment, therapy, grief support groups, divorce support grou

This podcast begins with Merrill Aldrich reading Luke 24:13-32. What really happened on that Easter morning? A resurrection? An awakening? No one can say for certain, but we can say this — Jesus of Nazareth’s life after his death changed the world. On this Easter Sunday, it also has the power to change us. Come find out how.

In his essay of the same title, the Hungarian cultural critic László Földényi stages an encounter between Dostoyevsky and Hegel, between our creaturely sense of transcendence as finite-limited-mortal beings and radical Enligthenment's belief in unbounded progress and mastery. In a world mediated through switches, buttons, credit cards, screens, redlined neighborhoods and land as commodity for ownership, what do we mean by the sacred? In this moment of climate change and degradation of life, when the wounded world seems "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing," how do we remain attentive to the sacred song of life itself, to claim a deeper sense of belonging to the earth, shared history, and to each other? Worship associate Nancy Dilts and Rev. KP Hong amplify the work of honest storytelling, asking us to more creatively name this sacred life and work against its degradation.