Unitarian Universalist Church of Delaware County - Sermons

The pandemic was well under way.  Leaving his position of privilege, this respected medical practitioner went into the streets and hospitals to serve those who were suffering and dying from the disease.  The physician’s name was Guy de Chauliac.  It was the 14th century and the plague, known as the Black Death, would devastate up … Continue reading On Moral Courage

This Sunday we begin our month-long reflection on the spiritual theme of “Awe.” Guest preacher Latifah Griffin offers the first of her two-part sermon series on “Being Awed by the Regular”, speaking to embracing the sacred awe and wonder of life. There is no text for this sermon, so please listen to the audio.

Latifah Griffin’s shares the second part of her two-part series on “Being Awed by the Regular”, reflecting on how we might tap into our spiritual awesomeness for the new year using UU principles. There is no additional text for this sermon. Please listen to the audio.

As a liberal religion, we hold steadfast to the belief that all are welcome in our places of worship and reflection and that all should feel celebrated and safe. The report “Widening the Circle of Concern” shared at this year’s General Assembly reminds us that our tradition is still growing and living into this vision. … Continue reading To Pledge Ourselves Anew

Last Wednesday night I was visited by an angel. His name was Michael, and I met him right out there in the lobby. He was sitting on the couch, patiently waiting for me while I was in a meeting. As I came out of my meeting, he approached me and asked if I was the pastor of the church. When I told him I am, he asked if I had a few minutes to talk. We sat down on the couch, and he told me that he was looking for a church that would welcome him. He told me that he’d grown up Catholic. “Me too,” I answered, hoping to quickly form a bond. Then he told me that that didn’t work for him anymore, and that he’d been searching for something else for quite a while. He’d tried an evangelical Christian church, but he couldn’t get on board with their narrow path to salvation or their emotive style of worship.

“What’s it like here?” he asked. I told him about the diversity of beliefs among us, and how we’re all bound by a shared understanding that none of us has all the answers and we’re all seeking together. I told him about our commitment to social justice and described some of our activities in that arena. I described a little bit about what happens here on Sunday mornings.

Then Michael asked me, “Do you think there’s room for someone like me here?” and I asked him what he meant. He said, “I’m politically conservative.” He went on to tell me that, while he’d been waiting for me to come out of my meeting, he’d been looking at our bulletin boards, and that from what he read he was concerned that he wouldn’t be accepted here. “Take climate change, for example,” he said. “There are a lot of scientists that say it’s been happening since the earth began. I don’t believe it’s a man-made problem. Would I be skating uphill here?” That’s the term he used: “skating uphill.” In the space between his question and my response, he put it more pointedly: “In a liberal church that says they accept a diversity of viewpoints, would I be welcomed here or would I be shunned?” That was the word he used: “shunned.”

How would you answer Michael’s question? How would we treat a so-called climate-denier here in our church, if they had the courage to say out loud that they didn’t believe that global warming was a man-made problem? What would we do, for that matter, if someone walked through our doors this morning wearing a red MAGA hat or a “Trump 2020” button on their blouse? These questions, like the one asked by the angel Michael last Wednesday night, force us to confront the question: “Who are we as a people of faith?” Or, to put it in terms of our spiritual theme of “Expectation,” what does our faith expect of us? What does it expect from us?

Last week I proposed that the 20th century building blocks of Unitarian Universalism, which were “freedom, reason and tolerance,” needed updating. I suggested that, while not discarding those values, we place at our bedrock instead the principles of “love, justice, and transformation.” This week I’m turning the tables and asking not “what can we expect from our faith,” but “If our motivating values are love, justice and transformation, what does our faith require of us?” If that question has a familiar ring to it, that’s because it’s been asked for centuries. For millennia, actually. If we look in the Hebrew Bible to the book of Micah, Chapter 6, verse 8, we find the question: “What does the Lord require of you?” and the answer: “to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” The more I’ve thought about this, the more I keep coming back to Micah 6:8. “Act justly, love mercy, walk humbly.” Isn’t that really, in a nutshell, what it’s all about? I could just sit down now and be done with today’s message, but I’m guessing you’re hoping I might spend a little bit of time unpacking it.

If we claim that “love, justice and transformation” are the foundational principles of a 21st century Unitarian Universalism, what are we to do? How are we to act? What might need to change within us so that we

Last Wednesday night I was visited by an angel. His name was Michael, and I met him right out there in the lobby. He was sitting on the couch, patiently waiting for me while I was in a meeting. As I came out of my meeting, he approached me and asked if I was the … Continue reading What Does Our Faith Require of Us? (Part 2 of 2)

Before I begin, I want to let you know that this is the first of a two-part message, and that I’ll be delivering the second half next Sunday. So, please plan to be here next week and, if you can’t, you can either read or listen to next week’s message on our newly revamped web site. Because, while today’s message focuses on what we can and should expect from our Unitarian Universalist faith, we need to turn the tables and examine what this faith expects of us, too. That’ll be coming next week.

Let me also preface my message this morning by revealing my own personal biases, which like all biases are shaped by my experience. You need to know that I was raised in the Catholic church. My parents weren’t particularly devout, but they took us to mass every Sunday morning and sent me to CCD classes. I received First Communion in second grade and continued my religious education through my confirmation when I was twelve. But the tenets of the Catholic church never really “took” for me – although they did for both my sisters who continue to embrace the Catholic church to this day – and at the age of about 15 I told my parents that I wasn’t going to church any more. From that time until I walked through the doors of the First Universalist Church in Yarmouth, Maine in 1986, I was what they called “un-churched.” I tell you all this because it’s important to know that I discovered our faith in the mid-1980’s and that I was what we once called a “come-outer:” one of the many UU’s, perhaps the majority of us at that time and perhaps like yourself, who came to Unitarian Universalism out of another faith tradition.  I can distinctly remember coming home from the first Unitarian Universalist service that I ever attended and gleefully reporting to Irene, who had stayed home to care for our infant daughter, that I couldn’t believe there was a church where they didn’t even mention Jesus. And, as I would soon learn, it was a church where you didn’t need to believe in God or, really, from what I could tell, anything in particular to belong. I share a similar history with many UU’s, and perhaps many of you here today.

Back in the mid-1980’s, Unitarian Universalism was still in the grips of the Humanist movement, and I was taught that our faith was a stool whose three legs were “freedom, reason and tolerance.” Earl Morse Wilbur, who penned a definitive, three-volume history of our faith back in the early 1970’s described Unitarian Universalism as “a movement fundamentally characterized by its steadfast and increasing devotion to these three leading principles: first, complete mental freedom in religion rather than bondage to creeds or confessions; second, the unrestricted use of reason in religion, rather than reliance upon external authority or past tradition; third, generous tolerance of differing religious views and usages rather than insistence upon uniformity in doctrine, worship or polity.” At the time that I joined our church, these three principles – freedom, reason, and tolerance – were the highest values and ideals. They were the altar at which we worshipped, although no one would have openly used those words at that time.

Freedom, reason and tolerance are certainly still very much with us these days. We can safely hold an expectation that these values will be upheld within our congregations, including this one. As Unitarian Universalists, we place a premium on our freedom from dogma, on our freedom to pursue our own spiritual path. We also continue to place value on reason. We rely on an expectation that, as it’s sometimes said, “we don’t have to check our brains at the door.” Our faith isn’t a blind faith that requires us to believe in the supernatural, or things that can’t be proven. Although the value we place on freedom says that we make room for those who do believe in God, angels and life after death. “Tolerance” strikes me as an antiquated word, a tepid response to the alleged diversity among us. Maybe “inclusion” would

Before I begin, I want to let you know that this is the first of a two-part message, and that I’ll be delivering the second half next Sunday. So, please plan to be here next week and, if you can’t, you can either read or listen to next week’s message on our newly revamped web … Continue reading What To Expect From Our Faith (Part 1 of 2)

One of the things I love about our Unitarian Universalist faith is that it allows us, even encourages us, to gain insight and inspiration from a variety of sources. It values our own experiences of mystery and wonder. It says that we can find spiritual meaning not just from holy books, but from poetry and novels and conversations with friends. This summer, I found inspiration for today’s message in a most unlikely place: in a movie called “City Slickers.”

My daughter Julia and her husband

were going to a dude ranch in Idaho later in the summer, so I told them that we

all had to watch “City Slickers” together. It’s a story about 3 men living in

New York City who are all having a mid-life crisis. They decide that the cure

is to go on a cattle drive out west. Riding horses, roping steers, sleeping

under the stars. Even if you haven’t seen the movie, you get the picture. With

Billy Crystal as the lead actor, you know that comedy ensues. But in the middle

of this mid-life crisis movie, I found a nugget of wisdom that I want to share

with you today. Let me set the scene for you:

Billy is riding with the boss of the

cattle drive. His name is Curly. Curly is a trail-weary and trail-wise man with

a heavily wrinkled face that reveals the miles he’s ridden. Curly has seen men

like Billy come and go, all in search of themselves. Curly has Billy’s number.

So he says to Billy, “You want to know the secret to life?” and of course Billy

anxiously says “Yes, please tell me.” So Curly looks at Billy. Then he holds up

his index finger and says “This. This is the secret to life.” And of course,

Billy jokes with Curly: “Your finger? Your finger is the secret to life?” And

Curly, in all seriousness, says, “It’s one thing. Just one thing.” And as you

would imagine, Billy says, “Okay. So, what’s the one thing?” And Curly says to

Billy, “Well, that’s for you to figure out.”

Oh man! We were so close to finding

the meaning of life! You wanted me to give you the answer. I know you did! Now,

I know that, in the story that Chrissy told us today that she said there are

three things we need to remember: that the most important time is now, the most

important person is the person we’re with, and the most important thing to do

is the thing that needs doing in the moment. And all that is true. But I want

to go even further and look at Curly’s “one thing.” Because we can all remember

this (holding up index finger).

I think what Curly was telling Billy

was that life is all about finding the one thing that gives life meaning. And

that that one thing is different for everybody. That Curly’s “one thing” wasn’t

going to be the same as Billy’s “one thing,” just like my “one thing” is going

to be different from your “one thing.” Curly was also telling Billy that no one

can tell us what our “one thing” is. And if someone tries to tell us what our

“one thing” is, it’s probably their “one thing” and not ours. We can only find

our own “one thing” by seeking it ourselves. We’ve got to take the journey to figure

it out. That doesn’t mean that we don’t ask others for help along the way –

people to point us in the right direction, or to give us water when we’re

thirsty or grilled cheese sandwiches when we’re hungry. But ultimately, we’re

the only ones who can discover and decide what our “one thing” is. Later in the

movie, Billy discovers his “one thing,” but you’ll have to watch the movie to

see what it is.

This whole idea of “one thing” is

particularly important these days. Because we’ve got so many things pulling us

in so many different directions. There are so many issues, so many concerns, so

many opportunities that are demanding our attention and our energies, sometimes

we feel like we don’t know which way to turn. It can all feel so overwhelming

and so discouraging. It can make us feel powerless and hopeless. Do we fight

for Climate justice or raising the minimum wage? Do we teach religious

education or work on the Capital Campaign? Am I going to sleep o

As we reach the traditional end of the summer, Rev. Peter offers his reflections on how we might hold onto “that summer feelin'” throughout the year.