Sermon series: Gift
Amidst the sleigh bells and angels heralding good tidings of great joy, we wish for you, especially, time to reflect on the gift that you are, and the gifts that you bring, to the world. During the holiday season our sermon series, Gift, encouraged us to pay attention to the small voice within about what we want the season to bring.
December 24 reflection service: Readings from Rev. Kate Tucker and Intern Minister Ralph Krog (podcast here).
December 18 contemplative service: Some of the readings from Rev. Kate Tucker and Intern Minister Ralph Krog on "Being the Gift" (podcast here)
December 11 service: Rev. Kate Tucker talked about "Seeking the Gift" (podcast here, also featuring the wonderful "Feast of Carols" singing celebration from First Universalist Choir and a chamber orchestra)
Message excerpt #1:
This message, god with us and in us, hidden under the tinsel and the plates of cookies with sprinkles on them, is good news, meant to make us glad and bold. It’s the root of democracy. It’s the light in the Arab Spring. It’s the muscle in the civil rights movement. It’s the truth claimed by the Occupiers who say, boldly, we have the gift, and we deserve the gladness. Who say: We are the light of the world--hide it under a bushel? No way. They can hurt us but they can’t put out the light. It’s all right to be angry, but it’s also okay to be glad, very glad.
Message excerpt #2:
There’s the good news. That’s the gift. Inside that “starry darkness from whence we come and whither we go,” we are conduits of love. We are instruments in love’s hands, we are french horn and drum and violin and voices. We are played through. We are lamps, for a time, shone through--by the light. And to party hearty, as long as we let everyone come. And leave no one outside the door.
December 4 service: Rev. Justin Schroeder talked about "Trusting the Gift" (podcast here)
November 27 service: Director of Worship Arts Ruth MacKenzie talked about "The Wishing Tree" in a special storytelling family service (podcast here)
November 20 service: Rev. Justin Schroeder talked about "The Simple Gift" (podcast here)
A. Powell Davies, Unitarian minister and social activist, said it this way:
Let us open our hearts to Christmas.
Open them to all the hope that stands against a world that wastes with evil things; open them wide enough for gentleness in a world that is bitter and harsh; for loveliness in a world that is desolate; for faith and its joy and the song of its joy, that sings in the presence of God.
Universalism has been and continues to be a hopeful religion. In these last days of 2011, a year that has been rocked by so much to trouble over, let us open our hearts to the gift of possibility. Let us open our hearts to hope.
For related blog posts on this theme:
See Rev. Schroeder's post about writing a new narrative on "Black Friday"