Sermons given at UUCB, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley

Healing begins with honest reckoning. As civil rights activist James Baldwin reminds us, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” Ministerial intern Liesl Dees draws on her experience in building solidarity with an Indigenous community to reflect on what courage and humility ask of us as we tell the truth about past harms—and begin the work of repair.

Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley February 1, 2026 People of Color Caucus (POCC) and

Rev. Marcus Liefert, Service Leaders

Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley January 25, 2026 STAINED GLASS JOY

Rev. Marcus Liefert

Joy rarely arrives as pure light. It is colored by grief, memory, fear, and longing—beautiful, complex, and sometimes fragile. We honor joy not as a reward for spiritual success, but as light refracted through real lives, asking how communities can celebrate brightness without demanding it.

Like most of our kind now and through history, we live our lives in the shadow of empire. Dislocation—the process of becoming separated from traditional cultural practices and connection to a specific place and people—casts long shadows. Injustice compounds dislocation, deepening shadows across lives already deprived of access to safety, dignity, and belonging. As we honor Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and legacy, let us recommit to the multi-generational work of building a society that values integrity, joy, and service.

Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley January 11, 2026 LETTING IN THE LIGHT AS IT COMES

Rev. Marcus Liefert

“This living is a guesthouse,” wrote Mevlana Rumi, inviting us to welcome the whole wild array of our human experiences as guests. The light arrives in our guesthouse through many windows: sometimes glaring, sometime illuminating, sometimes distorting, always sourced in the sacred. In this worship series, we turn to exploring interior states with the slanting light of the midwinter sun to show the way.

Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley January 4, 2026 FLOWERS AND GARBAGE

Liesl Dees, Intern Minister,

Service Leader

Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley December 28, 2025 From the Bedside

Rev. Mr. Barb Greve

Join Rev. Greve as he brings us to the bedside of his work as a hospice chaplain, inviting us to witness the ordinary and extraordinary that can occur as we near the end of our lives.

THE LONGEST NIGHT AND THE IRRESISTIBLE DAWN

Rev. Marcus Liefert

We know the longest night will end. We know there will be a new day to come. So why are we so anxious all along the way?

Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley December 14, 2025 MIRACLES AMIDST THE RUBBLE

Rev. Marcus Liefert

What if the true miracle is not that the oil lasted eight nights but that there is oil to burn at all? Perhaps you know more than you might think about living in the plundered, descrated remains of the temple. Perhaps even a miracle happened, even here.

How are we supposed to hold all the desperation of our times and all the wonder of the season all at once? The journey to Bethlehem beckons, promising a mess of politics, poverty, unplanned pregenancy, braying animals, and a hope powerful enough to change the world.