Sermons (2001-2002)
By
Rev. Kendyl Gibbons
Sermons on tape may be obtained through our Membership Office.
The Price of Community
June 2, 2002
One of the important functions of religious institutions is to help dispel the romantic fantasies that most human beings entertain about how easily the world could be transformed if only everybody loved everybody else. It is easy, when we are confronted with the madness of war, to think that peaceful community is the natural state of things, but in reality community is a careful and demanding construction. Engaging in the task of that construction is how we demonstrate the truth of our values and our commitment; it is how we become real. We will welcome the newest members to join our Society as part of this service.
The Gospel of Ecology
Matthew Johnson, Intern Minister
April 21, 2002
Today we celebrate Earth Day. It is good and right to ask about our responsibility and obligation to the earth, and for our ecological prophets to call us to action and awareness. Yet there is also a time to be reminded of the pay-off, the good news. The good news, the gospel of ecology, is that living in greater harmony, valuing the web of life, can help us live lives of more joy, more purpose, and of deeper peace. Loving the earth can liberate and empower us. Leave your guilt at home and come thankful for the beauty of the earth.
Where the Heart Is
April 7, 2002
The mayor's second conference on affordable housing in Minneapolis takes place this afternoon, and we Unitarian Universalists are starting to get a reputation as known advocates for the housing needs in our city. How is this concern being addressed, in our own congregations, in our neighboring faith communities, and throughout the metro area? How does our understanding of what makes a city work, or makes a city great, influence our work and our hopes in dealing with the complex issues of trying to help everyone have a home?
By the Meanings of Things
March 17, 2002
Growing up as a Unitarian-Universalist is a strange and wonderful experience. Next week, we will celebrate the return of many of the children and youth of this congregation over the years, and hear some of their stories about how their experience at FUS has shaped their lives since then. Today, Kendyl and Matthew, both born and raised UUs, reflect on our own experiences in other congregations as Sunday School students and youth program participants. What makes our next generation stay connected to this heritage, and what do they make of the wisdom and the freedom we try to give them?
Practicing Humanism: Beyond These Walls
March 3, 2002
They may not realize it, but many members of FUS are evangelical Humanists - and so am I. We believe that our ideas have the power to heal and transform individual lives, and to make the world a better place. There is a fundamental difference between a religious community that exists to nurture and comfort those who are already there, or who happen to find it, and a dynamic organization of people who have an important message to proclaim. What is our message, and what do we need to do to share it?
Practicing Humanism: Pluralism
February 17, 2002
The second in this month's series on the fundamental values of humanism and its practices. How does a tradition that places its trust in human experience and human aspiration cope with the great diversity among people, the differences in what they believe and what they want? Tempting as it is to suppose that with enough education and persuasion, each of us could bring the rest of the world around to our own way of thinking, humanism teaches us to value our differences, even the profound ones, and to find pleasure in the discussions that ensue when we explore them with mutual respect and candor.
Journey Towards Wholeness
Matthew Johnson, Intern Minister
February 10, 2002
We share a vision of our community and our world that respects diversity, that practices love instead of hate, and that rejects racism in all its forms. But how do we get there? This morning we celebrate Journey Towards Wholeness Sunday, the anti-racism initiative among Unitarian Universalists. Intern Minister Matthew Johnson will describe a journey full of possibility; one based on the power of coalitions, that affirms our principles, and that can give us the courage and hope to make the trek. What does the struggle for justice look like when we stop thinking "us" and "them" and start thinking "we?"
Practicing Humanism: Evidence
February 3, 2002
The first in a series of three sermons on the fundamental values of humanism as a religious philosophy, and how it shapes our everyday lives in practice. Perhaps the most distinctive characteristic of this tradition is the way in which we know things; what forms of knowledge do we accept as authoritative, and how do we evaluate contradictory claims about the way the world is? The answer is the complete antithesis to the often-repeated misapprehension that "we can believe whatever we want."
Covenant of Love
January 27, 2002
Gomer, daughter of Dibliam, has come down to us in the literature of the Hebrew scriptures as the notoriously unfaithful wife of the prophet Hosea. The book we know as the Old Testament was assembled by the victors in a centuries-long struggle between competing theologies, and records the triumph of Yahweh, god of armies, over the goddess-worshipping cults of the indigenous Canaanites. This suggests that there might be another side to Gomer's story -- this morning, a voice from the past.
Freedom at Risk
January 20, 2002
The 'great experiment' in democracy that brought the United States of America into existence has endured for more than two hundred years - not a long time by the standards of world history, but long enough to have had its ups and downs. Have the events of September 11 indeed confronted us with a situation completely unprecedented, in which we are called upon to give up some of our foundational liberties, or have we been here, done this before? Are there ways in which our spiritual heritage calls upon us to respond to this historic moment?
Habits of the Heart
January 6, 2002
Each new year offers an opportunity for reflection on the elements of our lives; what is outgrown or destructive that we would like to consign to the past? What are the enduring sources of joy and meaning that we choose to nurture? What adventures await our assent, and what new qualities do we hope to cultivate in the year ahead? How can we better translate our religious convictions into everyday realities, so that they become inseperable aspects of our personalities rather than occasional meditations?
All in the Family
December 16, 2001
The holiday season presents us with many challenges related to our notion of family; it can be difficult to deal with the families we have, and equally difficult to deal with the families we don't have. Fantasy, reality, and absence together weave a tapestry that sends all kinds of messages about love and rejection, aloneness and connection, the meaning of home. Let's take a few moments to think about what we actually believe, and how to act out of our values rather than our vulnerabilities with those whose love forever shapes us.
The Noblest Work
December 2, 2001
The 2001 Service Auction sermon topic was won by Ray Schreurs, who asked to hear about the renowned reformer and educator Horace Mann, a Unitarian. He began his career as an idealistic lawyer and legislator, later becoming interested in education, and serving as the founding president of Antioch College. What were the convictions at work in Mann's life, and in the culture of his time that motivated him, and how are modern religious liberals called to respond to his legacy?
The Purpose of Life
November 25, 2001
Many people consider the question "What is the meaning of life?" to be the hardest to answer, and that may be right; I don't know what life means. But I do know what the purpose of life is, and that's what I will discuss this morning. Meaning can be an abstract thing; we can know what something means without caring about it. But to have a purpose is to be ready for action, and to want one thing rather than another. Religion, whether it is Humanist or any other kind, is about approaching life with a sense of purpose and passion, and manifesting these things in the ordinary course of our days.
To Seek the Highest
November 18, 2001
A day of many celebrations, including the culmination of the 50th anniversary of the dedication of our building, and the welcoming of our newest members, as well as honoring those reaching their 10th year of membership. The title is taken from a statement by the Humanist thinker Felix Adler; "The place where people meet to seek the highest, is holy ground." Today we recognize the importance of this 'holy ground' in our lives, and the history of dedicated seeking and service that has made it so.
Windows of Opportunity
November 11, 2001
This day marks half a century since the dedication of this home for the First Unitarian Society. This building has housed Humanism in the Twin Cities for fifty years, and part of our recognition of that achievement is a campaign of financial stewardship, to take care of some deferred maintenance such as the window wall, the climate control and ventilation system, and the last segment of re-roofing. Today we will hear the good news of some very generous commitments already made to this project, and begin the opportunity for wider participation. At the same time, we are making a commitment to the work of affordable housing in Minneapolis; as responsible citizens, we must care for our own home AND for those in need.
That the World Should Go On
October 28, 2001
This morning we celebrate the intimate covenant of parents and children, and the large covenant of the world's great powers in the institution of the United Nations. Those who care for little ones as they grow come to understand that life is composed of small victories and modest miracles; the day-to-day movement into maturity that is never perfect and never complete. So it is in the community of nations, as together we strive to grow into a mature human race that can live with each other in peace and mutual concern; it is a ceaseless process of a thousand tiny steps, requiring immense patience and tolerance for frustration. How can we keep moving in the direction of the kind of world we wish to leave our children?
A Humanist World -- Living on the Creative Edge of Our Culture
Tony Hileman, Executive Director of the American Humanist Association
October 21, 2001
This address follows up his presentation the previous evening at the Humanists of Minnesota banquet on achieving equal rights for humanists in American society. Our culture progresses through a never-ending process of replacing the accepted opinions of one age with the new understandings of another. Humanism, by its very nature, exists at the forward reach of how we think about and act toward the world in which we live.
Living Outside the Lines
October 7, 2001
Perhaps no polarity seems so inherent in western culture as that between male and female. The sense that this division of the world is built into the way things are is at the root of anything that challenges its boundaries. How then can we educate ourselves to respond to people who perceive, with varying levels of intensity, that their innermost identity is not the same as the gender that culture assigns to them on the basis of their body parts? Today we will consider what Solidarity Sunday means for the "T" in GBLT -- the transgender community.
Unitarian Universalism Faces the Future
Matthew Johnson, Intern Minister
September 23, 2001
Our new full-time student intern speaks about his vision for our faith for the next generation and beyond. Lifting up those practices and ideas already present in our movement, he will introduce himself by exploring where we as UUs can go together.
The Disciplines of Light: A Service of Remembrance
September 16, 2001
Is arbitrary cruelty indeed the final word? Have evil and death the upper hand? No, dearly beloved, it is not so -- not unless we choose to have it so. The arc of the moral universe is long, said Thoreau, -- unbearably long, sometimes -- But it bends toward justice. Those things we have always found to be lastingly real and powerful are real and powerful still, And continue to nurture the human spirit, even in this terrible time. Love. Beauty. The community of memory and promise. The work of justice. The trust of children. Music. Flowers. Light. The heritage of freedom. The inner stillness. Humanity's ancient dream of peace.