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Sermon Series: Living Resolutions

January 29 podcast: "Losing Weight and Casting Out Demons" click here for podcast, by Rev. Justin Schroeder

January 22 podcast: "Exercise More" click here for podcast by Rev. Justin Schroeder and Director of Congregational Life Heidi Mastrud

January 15 podcast: "Repairing Relationships" click here for podcast by Rev. Justin Schroeder

January 8 podcast: "Eating Well," click here for podcast of sermon by Rev. Kate Tucker

A line attributed to Ramakrishna (Indian mystic), that goes:
“The winds of grace are always blowing, but we must raise our sails.”
That pretty much says it for me; that’s what I’ve bet my life on--
Those winds of grace, the Larger Life always available--even when
we can see it, don’t believe it, feel like cursing the whole mess--
The Larger Life whose name is Love which we don’t control and
won’t ever master, but which is always moving around us and can take us forward if we will--
 And so our task is to use whatever means we can to haul up our sails and catch those winds--
And all the practices we employ--worship, prayer and meditation, healthy habits, fine arts, friendship, running and yoga and working the soil--or working, period, at our calling whatever it is,
All the practices we employ--reaching out to others, telling our story, walking the winding road of the labyrinth or the long road of healing from illness--
All these are ways of raising those sails in hopes of catching those winds.
And that’s it. That’s how we become grace’s people, love’s people, guided by those winds.
That’s my belief so far.

January 1 podcast: "What is Your Resolution?," click here for podcast of sermon by Intern Minister Ralph Krog

from the January Liberal newsletter

It’s January, the official beginning of another year. It’s the time when we make resolutions. That is, we look at our lives and ask ourselves, Where do I want to go with my life and how can I help myself get there?

Is it time to attend to my physical health in new ways? Eat more mindfully? Pay better attention to what nourishes me? Take up running or tai chi? Give up that which is (let’s face it) only hurting me? Is it time to attend to my financial health in different ways? Cap my credit card spending? Stick to a weekly budget? (Create a budget?) Be more generous? Take the bus more often? Find ways to make my spending align with my care for this fragile, magnificent, blue-green planet?

Could now be the time when I’m ready to open myself further to the art of relationship, and to take some holy risks? To move into my friendships with more intention? To make more time for my spouse/partner? To set aside some defensiveness? To look for new ways to say “thank you?” To visit once more that ancient wound and clear a path by choosing to forgive? Or by asking for forgiveness?

Is it time to round up more support for myself in this rigorous spiritual practice called parenting? Is it time to let my children teach me something I need to learn? Have I done the work I need to in order to replenish from an empty nest?

Here’s the thing about our resolutions. If they’re going to stick, they need to be small and structured and part of the larger, longer sacred path we’ve chosen. That is, they need to feed that deep secret knowledge we each have about why we are on earth, at this time, in this place, with these resources.

Imagine for a moment that each of us is here to (as Gary Snyder says) “move the world a millionth of an inch.” What infinitesimal part of this world would you move? From where to where would you move it? In whose service would you make the move?

The focus of our sermon series this month on living our resolutions. We focus on spiritual practices -- the why and the how. We’re saying that moving the world (even a millionth of an inch) begins with moving more deeply and bravely into our own lives. Join us for the great exploration.