Unity Church-unitarian's Sermon Podcasts

The entire church family will gather to "practice resurrection." Easter celebrates far more than simply the coming of spring. Easter is the joyful recognition of the ministry of Jesus and the many ways his work lives on in all our lives.

Theologian James Luther Adams identified five smooth stones of liberal religion. These stones can be thought of as the stepping stones that we walk upon as we move forward into the future. Explore the smooth stones of our liberal religion that speak to what we might become in the future.

There are times in life when only faith will suffice. Rob and Worship Associate Elizabeth Alexander have collected stories of such times in the lives of church members and will offer them in collage as part of the service. Even though we know that spring is on the way there are times when even the resilience of the seasons seems in doubt.

How do we keep our heart attuned to the harsh realities of what happens in the public squares of our sacred world? How do we become more and more conscious and spiritually engaged? Explore the road toward becoming an Active Witness; a tool that may reawaken/reconnect us to the fullness and wholeness of life.

Sometimes our efforts at keeping our lives in balance are not enough. With a chance misstep, the world tilts, and we take a tumble. Can we fall with grace, or do we resist the inevitable outcome? Can we recover, and how? Who is there to help us, and can we accept that help?

The Blues tradition embraces the reality that some times "just gettin’ down" with our blues can be the wisest thing to do in response to our disappointments.

There is no work (outside of serving as an instrument of evil) that cannot be made worthwhile. Both suffering and joy are largely a matter of consciousness. Gandhi taught that caste was a matter of karma. In other words, know your place and find happiness there. That approach is in direct conflict with working for human liberation. Or is it?

W. E. DuBois states, "Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow, not some more convenient season. It is today that our best work can be done and not some future day or future year. It is today that we fit ourselves for the greater usefulness of tomorrow. Today is the seed time, now are the hours of work, and tomorrow comes the harvest and the play-time." In justice-making work is there room for joy? If so, how do we find joy and sustain it? This service will be led by Jacqueline Duhart and Worship Associate Neely Crane-Smith.

Every great tradition points to the fact that compassion can take root in a heart that’s been broken. There is work we do that we know won’t be accomplished in just one generation. We do it anyway because we know it’s right. Rob and Worship Associate Estelle Brouwer will speak of their own heartbreak and of why good work is sometimes worth the risk.

The first service dedicated to the theme of "Work Worth Doing" will explore the important work of raising and mentoring our children and youth.

With the joy of birth and hope that the Christmas season offers us, there is another side. Holy Innocents Day, an ancient Feast Day, recalls the story of the slaughter of the infants in Bethlehem as described in the Gospel of Matthew. How can this apparent evil be part of the Christmas story? How do we face the fact that we live, and many around us suffer and die, daily? Come explore how we may navigate a world full of suffering, violence, and despair.

The long midwinter nights seem almost out of time. We rush around in hope of pleasing those we love the best while the world around us slows down to starlit stillness. A quality of spiritual surrender is forcing ourselves to slow down.

The title of this service comes from the poetry of Sufi poet, Rumi. But folk wisdom posits that guests, like caught fish are welcome for about three days.

All creation sings the secret told to Mary by an Angel. Soon God will be born again through you. Soon love will come to you in human form.

In a quest for efficiency, order and even survival, we compartmentalize our lives, separating work from family, from church, from leisure. We know that some boundaries are necessary, but when do we go too far? What is the spiritual cost to such dis-integration?

The story of the first Thanksgiving may well be mostly myth. We know how quickly gratitude gave way to conquest. But seeds of possibility and hope were planted with the corn when spring finally arrived after that terrible first winter. For years now we’ve been planting seeds of hope in Transylvania. We’ve exchanged visits, struggled for mutual respect and gained far more than we could ever have imagined as genuine, lasting friendships have taken root.

We welcome Vivek Pandit, freedom fighter, community organizer and the visionary founder of Vidhayak Sansad, an organization at work freeing slaves in India. Vivek, who is in Saint Paul to explore partnership possibilities with Unity Church, asks us to contemplate the following question. How can liberal religion help newly liberated people to achieve inner freedom? Breaking physical chains is easy when compared to confronting the oppression of self-doubt.

To miniaturize another human being is a violent act. When we make assumptions about others on the basis of some singular aspect of their identity we diminish and marginalize them. Rob and Worship Associate Mary Baremore will wrestle with this all-too-human tendency.