Things may feel dire now, and our outlook for the immediate future may be dismal, but we have been here before, and we can and shall meet injustice and adversity as we always have, by continuing to uphold our values and principles in all places at all times. Community Support Gathering Friday, November 11th @ 6:30pm.

During the current political season Bernie Sanders said Israel’s “destruction of Gaza went too, too far,” and it is irresponsible for our nation to give 100 percent support to “people like Netanyahu and ignore the rest of the region.” Sander’s remarks were unprecedented for a potential Presidential candidate to make, especially given than he is himself Jewish. I consider his remarks courageous and he has inspired me to address this important, troubling, polarizing, moral issue myself.

It’s been more than five years since I became minister at UUCS and all I’ve done is talk about what I don’t believe. Maybe it’s about time I mentioned what I do believe in.

No, that’s not a misspelling. It is intended to make the point that Unitarian Universalism, though considered a New Religious Movement these days, is actually rooted in the ancient teachings of Jesus. This sermon will look at how the ideas of Unitarianism and Universalism are among the oldest in the Book.

I don’t talk about it much because it’s kind of weird and hard to explain, but one of my greatest teachers, if not friend, in life has been an old book called the I Ching, an ancient Chinese oracle that precedes Taoism. In this sermon I’ll talk about some of the insights and changes it has brought in my own life, as well as a little about the philosophy behind it. I’ll even include a special message from the I Ching just for you.

It often seems that in the United States it’s considered wrong to criticize our country. But how can we ever heal from our wounds and deal with our shame if we cannot admit our own failings, say we’re sorry, and commit to truly creating a new and better way?

There’s an ancient Hebrew story about a Pharaoh who gets so stuck in his ways that he’s unable to change no matter how bad things get for him and his people. As a society and as individuals it seems too many of us suffer the same kind of inflexibility, doing the same things over and over again, from all the terrible news stories we repeatedly see, to clinging to our ideas about being right even when the evidence says otherwise. Perhaps, like Pharaoh, if we can’t break free of our own worst habits they will end up destroying us.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, perhaps a few images of the Cosmos are worth trillions of light years. In this message we will explore our minuscule place in the Universe by reflecting upon a few of its awe inspiring depictions.

Since the term was first coined in the early 20th century, fundamentalism has been associated with a particular religious mindset. Exploring this mindset, however, makes it more akin to a mental disturbance than to a legitimate religious perspective. In this sermon I will call upon the American Psychiatric Association to list fundamentalism as a disorder in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual.

Given all the violence happening in the world by Muslim extremists, some have come to conflate Islam itself with terrorism. Some have even suggested law enforcement should pay special attention to Muslim neighborhoods. And some seem to think all Muslims are foreigners. In reality, Islam is the religion of many peaceful American citizens who ought to have their rights protected and be treated with the same respect anyone else.