University UMC Sermons

When it comes time to write my obituary for the local paper, please do not start with my résumé. Do not start with my career or my worldly accomplishments (however small they may be). Do not take up space writing about my alma mater or outlining the entire family tree (we know who we are). Instead, spend your precious little word count on how beautiful it all was. Write about the dinner parties and the fireside chats. Write about the evenings we spent on the front stoop counting fireflies. Write about summers in the mountains and the garden that we grew. Write about the seasons we cried out to God, and the prayers that God answered. Write about the nights we danced, and the days we laughed. When it comes time to tell the story of my life, please take a lesson from the Gospel of John, and start with a wedding. Start with a miracle. Start with the fact that all of it held joy. — A Sanctified Art

“Christ leads us down the mountain and into the desert, because the true transfiguration, the true shining forth of God in all God’s glory happens when we follow him there together.”

― Reverend Michael D. Kinman

“When we are really honest with ourselves we must admit our lives are all that really belong to us. So it is how we use our lives that determines the kind of people we are.” ― César Chávez

“I believe in the Holy Spirit, the eternal immigrant from God’s kingdom among us, who speaks all languages, lives in all countries, and reunites all races.” – Jose Luis Casal “The Immigrants Creed” from Fiesta Cristiana, a United Methodist resource for hispanic worship.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly." – Martin Luther King, Jr. “Letter from Birmingham, Alabama jail,” April 16, 1963

The Dream Keeper

Bring me all of your dreams,
You dreamer,
Bring me all your
Heart melodies
That I may wrap them
In a blue cloud-cloth
Away from the too-rough fingers
Of the world.” ― Langston Hughes, “The Dream Keeper and Other Poems”

Beloved is Where You Begin
by Jan Richardson

If you would enter
Into the wilderness,
Do not begin
Without a blessing.
Do not leave
Without hearing
Who you are:
Beloved,
Named by the One
Who has traveled this path
Before you.
Do not go
Without letting it echo
In your ears,
And if you find
it is hard
To let into your heart,
Do not despair.
That is what
This journey is for.

“Epiphany is a day in Chrisitan traditions when we remember the Magi’s journey, following a star from nations around the world to meet Christ as an infant. Later, when King Herod attempts to manipulate them to reveal the location of the child he wants to kill, they, in sacred disobedience, ignore his request.” – Cole Arthur Riley