…we don’t know our fates. We don’t know what our futures hold. There are times in which we will find ourselves in the wilderness, wandering, lost, angry, confused, feeling so far from the love of God, and in those times, and I know this all too well, we will despair, and we will feel absolutely sure that nothing will work out. We will feel absolutely sure that we are doomed. But we can never be sure. And as distant as God can feel sometimes, God is always there…

Admittedly, I haven’t given up much for Lent over these past few years. And more and more I’m less moved by the idea of giving something up, as opposed to adding something to our lives…

…when we take a step back from our curated media feeds, when we take a step back from our own troubles and anxieties and take a moment to really connect with someone, face to face, there’s a real freedom in letting go of our past and our own biases for a bit and really listening to someone, and doing our best to understand where they’re coming from, why they’re hurting, what makes them tick, what makes them happy, what they’re looking for in life. There’s a real freedom to know that we’re doing this for something greater than us…

…these rules for prophesy, they’re all about being able to properly discern what God is saying to us through prophets, through people like us, right in our midst. And if we’re constantly trying to control things that are out of our control, if we’re trying to find loopholes and workarounds to get ahead in life, or to get our way, we can’t focus on what God is actually saying to us…

So it seems to me, that the book of Jonah, which is more fantastical and over-the-top and ridiculous than maybe any other book in the Bible is sort of a lesson on how not to be— don’t be like Jonah! Petulant, jealous, avoidant, he’s kind of the worst! So how should we be? Well in my research for this sermon, I discovered that there’s an opposite of schadenfreude—it’s freudenfreude…

…what would make things even worse is if we all fall into complete despair and just assume nothing’s going to change. As usual, we have to start small. We have to figure out ways to find the divine in our personal lives, in the mundane, in the unfortunate...

…it really was all about a deep connections and understanding. That’s the peace that comes with the Holy Spirit…

…if we ignore the tragedy, the violence, and the anguish, we lose sight of God in the midst of it—our God who came to us in the form of a vulnerable human baby… our God who came to us in mortal human form to feel all that we feel, the joy and the sorrow… to deny that these emotions are there, to deny the tragedy and the horrors of the world, is, in a way, to deny God…

Our 2023 Christmas Pageant performed by our amazing youth!

This is the only way our God could come into the world—not the way Isaiah pleaded for—making mountains quake, making bushes spontaneously burst into flames, tearing open the heavens—but subtly, quietly, and humbly. Because what greater hope is there than that of a newborn baby?

Rev. Amy answers 4 pre-submitted theological questions from the congregation!

Two Thanksgiving homilies, from our combined Thanksgiving service with First Universalist Society of Hartland:

Rev. Paul Sawyer preaches on the poem "Thanks" by W.S. Merwin;

Rev. Amy Davin preaches on 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11; November 19th, 2023.

…she says that she learned from a doctor friend, what hope is. She says it “…isn’t…skipping to the end, ‘Just tell me everything’s going to be okay,’…But it’s the feeling where someone keeps pace with exactly where you’re at and helps you find the edges of what you can hope for.”

This is a place where we can, for just an hour or so, escape the judgment and manufactured scarcity of the world and feel the abundance of Love that’s promised; the abundance of love that is always available to everyone…

Let’s do right by the saints; let’s do right by those we’ve lost and continue to show the true Christian tenants of service, of inclusion, of radical hospitality, and of love—together, as one…

I had really been letting that expletive fly get to me. And when I had that conversation with Brian on Friday, I thought—what a perfect way to turn something so annoying into something positive. I really love the idea of letting that stupid little insect force me to take a deep breath and remember why I do what I do…

Who knows what Euodia and Syntyche were fighting about? It doesn’t matter to Paul, and it shouldn’t matter to us— what matters to Paul is that they get it together so that the innocents who have found a home in this Philippian-Christian community won’t find themselves without a faith community…

So when Paul uses his running metaphor, this metaphor of this race, and says, “…forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead…” he’s telling his friends, don’t get bogged down thinking and stressing about your past… learn from it, and move forward… learn from it and find a way to be at peace…

Grace is what allows us to be good Christians, or as good Christians as we can possibly be, in a world that makes being a good Christian nearly impossible…

But to accomplish those great things, they have to figure out what’s really necessary, what really matters in this world. Paul wants to make it clear that it’s not him—it’s working and acting and loving as one, for the community…