Below you'll find a selection of sermons by our Senior Minister, Rev. Jan Nielsen, and our Acting Associate Minister, Rev. Sarah Person.
Good News Is Not No News by Rev. Sarah Person - January 17, 2010
We have said we want to grow in diversity. We have said we want to reach out to others. We have said we want to embrace the new. To do this, we have to learn what we take for granted, what we need to give away and what we need to hold on to, what we need to compensate for, and what will make it all worthwhile.
We Begin with Kindness by Rev. Jan Nielsen - January 10, 2010
There are different ways
to come back to our best selves,
different words we can use to signal our souls
that it’s time to redirect
both our words and our actions toward kindness.
The practice of kindness is at the heart of the Golden Rule,
an ideal common to all of the major religions of our world:
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
As a mother, I’ve said it another way to our children:
“Treat other people the way you would want to be treated.”
This is what Jesus meant when he taught,
“Love thy neighbor as thyself.”
Here we say together each week those final words of our prayer for one another:
“Honor All Beings.”
Standing Up to the Odds by Rev. Sarah K. Person - December 13, 2009
Hanukkah presents us with two wonderful but distinct messages: first that we must be aware of and wonder at the God-given miracles of the world; and second that we must respond to the wonder in the form of our mindfulness and obligations to others. One message is passive, the other is active. We light the candle and we are bearers of the light, not just observers. We are bearers of the light for those who live in darkness and we have an obligation to them.
"You Give, and You are Given": A Reflection for Thanksgiving Sunday by Rev. Jan Nielsen - November 22, 2009
Thanksgiving is a time to remember
that all of us are here, together, on life’s journey,
not just to receive life’s blessings,
but also to give something away.
Where Are They Now? A Sermon for All Souls Day by Rev. Jan Nielsen - November 1, 2009
All of us, in this life, will lose someone we love.
None of us can live free of grief and loss.
So taught the Buddha to the grieving mother
who went door to door
unable to find any home untouched by loss.
Both to love and then, when a beloved dies, to grieve,
are part of what it means to be human.
We are in the season of All Souls,
that time when we,
like generations of humankind gone before us,
remember and honor our dead.
The Greatest Gift by Rev. Jan Nielsen - October 3, 2009
Life does offer us abiding, eternal truths
to guide the life of the soul.
We won’t find either those truths or our God, though,
by staying in our heads
and trying to think our way to spiritual truth.
We have to look to our hearts.
This is not to say that we don’t need to use our minds,
as we make our way along the soul’s journey.
We do need to think and study, to question and learn.
The life of the mind, though,
is not the opposite of the life of the heart.
To live deeply and fully the gift of this life,
we need to use both mind and heart.
"A Blessing of Regret" by Rev. Sarah Person - September 27, 2009
Today at sundown begins the Jewish Holy Day of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. I ask you to consider two big questions this morning: does Unitarian Universalism help us (a) figure out what to do with ourselves when we do wrong, and (b) understand the place of sin in the world? It could do better, a lot better. If you are a packrat and still have the May/June 1998 issue of World, check out the front cover. It shows a small UU church with a big sign in front that says, “We don’t do guilt.”
A Journey of Return: A Sermon for Rosh Hashanah 2009 by Rev. Jan Nielsen - September 18, 2009
If you’re visiting us for the first time today,
let me say this right up front:
no one here will ask that you accept any set of answers.
Some of us may have formed some ideas for ourselves
about some of these questions,
but no one here will tell you what to believe.
That’s not our way.
A Time to Begin Again by Rev. Jan Nielsen - April 12, 2009
Easter has come again.
It’s a day for lilies and alleluias,
colored eggs and candy,
good food and celebration.
We celebrate
spring’s return and the rebirth of the earth.
After winter’s cold,
our bodies and our souls are ready
for warmth and for color and,
perhaps especially this year,
a chance to begin again.
"Be Alive": A Sermon for Palm Sunday 2009 by Rev. Jan Nielsen - April 5, 2009
When life seems uncertain,
when times are hard,
when the day to day seems like a struggle,
voices of wisdom, both ancient and new,
turn us toward
what the poet names “the earth world,.”
the “green pastures,” the “still waters” that await the soul.
For thousands of years,
the words of the 23rd Psalm
have helped people to find
within their souls
the strength, the courage and the peace
to live through the trials of life,
to walk their hard “Palm Sunday” roads.
Maybe Jesus knew the 23rd Psalm;
it was a part of his Jewish faith tradition.
His heart, like the poet’s, must have known
“hesitations, questions, choices of directions.”
To Eat the Stars by Rev. Jan Nielsen - March 8, 2009
As long as we are alive, we will know fear.
Fear is part of life,
but we don’t have to let it take over and drive our lives.
We may not have control over all that happens,
and as they say, “Stuff happens,”
or as some would say,
“Compost happens,”
but we can choose how we respond when life brings fear.
Faith, says Sharon Salzberg, is a life affirming response to fear.
Faith can allow us to face our worst fears
without letting our fears drive our lives
and suck the life out of our souls.
Rainbow and the Soccer Mom by Rev. Sarah Person - February 8, 2009
Not long ago I found myself driving a van full of teenagers returning from a concert at Gillette Stadium. Anyone of you who has done so knows that one doesn’t go far or fast; and you have time to consider your life at length while the kids squeezed in back are singing at the top of their lungs. After about an hour or so, we had finally left the parking lot and were inching along Route 1 North while streams of cars tried to merge ahead of everyone else. I paused, trying to let a smaller car get in front of me. I flashed my lights, honked gently, asked one of the kids to roll down the window and waive the person ahead. The hapless driver was frozen, eyes glued ahead. I gave up. Turning to my front seat companion, I said “Why doesn’t she trust me?” “She’s afraid,” was the response. “You might be a SOCCER MOM.”
What We Need Is Here by Rev. Jan Nielsen - February 1, 2009
Sometimes though our days bring the unexpected
and everything changes.
Nothing seems certain anymore.
Maybe there’s trouble at work, or trouble at home, or both.
Maybe there’s news from the doctor and it’s not good.
What do we do then?
When we feel that anxiety churning inside,
what helps us cross over to a more peaceful shore?
What Do You Believe? by Rev. Jan Nielsen - January 25, 2009
What do you believe?
What is it that keeps you going?
What gets you out of bed every morning
and leads you to do what you do?
When so much around you seems to be changing,
what is it that remains constant?
When too much in the world, or in your life,
seems to be falling apart,
to what, or to where, do you turn for answers?
What guides the big decisions of your life?
An Open Letter to President-Elect Barack Obama by Rev. Jan Nielsen - January 18, 2009
We face great challenges;
there is much work to do.
To keep going,
we will need to feed one another’s souls.
Throughout the ages, the human voice,
and the gift of words,
have been the manna that has sustained the human spirit.
No matter what the critics and pundits may say,
let yourself be the poet you are.
Now more than ever,
we need the nourishment and inspiration of poetry.
Poetry points us toward larger truths;
poetry speaks to the soul.
I join Anna Quindlen
in pointing you toward that Chinese proverb:
“speech is the voice of the heart.”
Speak to us often; let us hear your voice.
Speak to our souls.
New Year's Reflections by Rev. Jan Nielsen - January 4, 2009
When the path ahead of us seems unclear,
it’s all the more important
to pay attention to the steps we take,
and to the choices we make.
It’s an old saying, but it’s true:
We can’t always control what happens to us in this life,
but we can choose how we will respond.
Our choices tell the stories of our lives.
Or as my wise Aunt Alma used to say,
“It’s not the hand you are dealt in life;
its how you play it that counts.”
It is true: how we live matters.
At the start of a new year,
especially this new year,
it makes spiritual sense
to take an honest look at how we live.
Keeping with the Heart by Rev. Jan Nielsen - December 21, 2008
This holiday season,
whatever gifts you give,
whatever gifts you receive,
look at those gifts not just with your eyes.
See the gifts of the season, and one another, with your heart.
Your life will be the richer for it.
Remember that wisdom from the Little Prince:
What is essential is invisible to the eye.
We see rightly only with the heart.
No Time to Waste: A Sermon for Advent 2008 by Rev. Jan Nielsen - December 14, 2008
We humans can waste a lot of time in this life.
We can be so foolish.
We can look really busy,
running here and there,
but all the while,
we can be asleep, numb, blind to what matters most.
"Build Thy Home in Thy Heart and Be Forever Sheltered" - A Sermon for Thanksgiving Sunday 2008 by Rev. Jan Nielsen - November 23, 2008
Thanksgiving is only days away.
It’s our national feast day, a day when,
we gather together, for better or for worse,
whatever our religious or spiritual inclinations,
to offer our thanks.
Since I was a small child,
Thanksgiving has been my favorite holiday,
though I haven’t always understood why.
With the passing years,
I have come to understand
that I feed more than my body
on Thanksgiving Day;
the simple ritual
of giving thanks over a special meal feeds my heart.
Spiritual Gifts: Listening and Giving by Rev. Jan Nielsen - November 16, 2008
Maybe you think you would have nothing much to share
if we were to bring a StoryCorps booth here to our church.
I think you do.
Each of us carries a story;
we all have something to teach.
Our American Story by Rev. Jan Nielsen - November 9, 2008
Our American story is one of hope.
It’s a story about people
(including some of our parents and grandparents)
who braved journeys across the seas
to make new lives in a new land.
Let us not forget, as Veteran’s Day approaches,
that ours is also a story about people who found
the courage to stand up, fight, and sometimes die,
for our personal freedoms,
and for the rights of every person
to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
Our story has inspired in people here and around the globe
bravery and courage,
independence and free thought,
sacrifice and hope.
Making It Through Hard Times by Rev. Jan Nielsen - October 19, 2008
In every life, there will be times
when it seems hard to hold it all together;
as surely as the sun rises, trials will come.
We will never reach a time in our lives
when all our lessons are learned
and our trials are over.
“Life is a school,” the saying goes,
and deep down
we all know this.
Even so,
when trials do come and times are hard,
it’s only human to feel that you’re in over your head.
"What Will Be Your Mark?" A Sermon for the High Holy Days 2008 by Rev. Jan Nielsen - October 5, 2008
Last Sunday, a group of us were talking
when one of you looked into my eyes with a smile and said,
in a most serious voice,
“Father, I have a confession. . .”
We all laughed.
That was a first. I’d never been called “Father” before,
but a delightful conversation unfolded.
Today, I have a confession to make:
this time of year, I wish I were a Jew.
"Lie Back" by Rev. Jan Nielsen - September 21, 2008
All of us, though, need reminders,
refresher courses for the soul.
Life can be hard; you know that.
And so we come here, to find our center,
to right our souls
that we might walk our paths with courage and open hearts.
You might say we come here “to get back to basics.”
And when our days, and the news,
leave us feeling frantic, anxious,
it’s time to remind ourselves just what the basics are.
Send Up a Prayer: A Sermon for Homecoming Sunday 2008 by Rev. Jan Nielsen - September 7, 2008
Because all of us are human and none of us gets it right all the time, we come here, to return together to our spiritual foundations, to bring one another back to our best selves. This is the way of love. The choice to live a loving life may be the most demanding of commitments, but it is the one way we learn what it means to be human. The way I see it, learning to love and to be loved is why we are here.
"For the Moment, We Hold a Winning Ticket": A Sermon for Father' Day 2008 by Rev. Jan Nielsen - June 15, 2008
Whether we call ourselves young, or old, or somewhere in between, each passing year carries an invitation, an invitation to the soul. Time’s passing invites the soul to the life giving waters of memory. Maybe this Father’s Day you remember a father or a grandfather, or someone who was like a father to you, someone who helped you, pushed you, believed in you. This is a day to remember.
"Never Give Up On What You Love": A Sermon For Mother's Day 2008 by Rev. Jan Nielsen - May 11, 2008
Maybe you’ve been there. I know I have. There you stand, just barely, feeling for all the world like one of those eighteen inch saplings, planted in the dead of winter. Nobody believed her tiny trees would survive, Sue Monk Kidd tells us, but she didn’t give up on the trees she loved. She tended them with care, made sure they had water and sunlight, pulled away the weeds, and even spoke words of kindness to her struggling trees, and her trees survived. “Never give up,” she reminds us, never give up on what you love.”
What If We Knew? by Rev. Jan Nielsen - Apr 6, 2008
“What if,” the poet Ellen Bass asks, “you knew you’d be the last to touch someone?” What if you knew you’d be the last to speak to someone? What if you knew you’d be the last to offer your hand to someone? What if you knew you’d be the last to place something in someone’s hand? If we all knew, how might everything change?
How Can It Be Easter? by Rev. Jan Nielsen - Mar 23, 2008
Today we tell again the Easter story, the story of Jesus the revolutionary, put to death on a Friday, nailed to a cross for his beliefs and radical ways, the same Jesus who, three days later, the Gospels tell us, rose to new life. It is, let’s face it, an almost unbelievable story. The hard part of the story, the unbelievable part, for some of us, is the part about Jesus rising from the dead to new life. It’s a story so out of this world that we might prefer to gloss over it, or even to avoid it entirely. The Easter story, though, is a story worth telling and retelling, a story worth the work it takes to go deeper that we might hear what the resurrection story has to say, this Easter 2008, to our lives, yours and mine.
"Are You Happy?" by Rev. Jan Nielsen - Mar 9, 2008
So, what makes for a happy life? And where do we find whatever it is that will make us happy? What about money? Will more money make us happier? We’ve all heard the saying, “Money can’t buy happiness.” Here’s where we need to pause for a moment though and remember that most of us are lucky. We have enough money for the basics-enough to eat, a safe place to sleep, clothes on our backs. Let us never forget that way too many aren’t so lucky and haven’t even the basics. Call it inequity, call it injustice that so many go without in a land of wealth; I call it just plain wrong.
What About Pride? by Rev. Jan Nielsen - Feb 10, 2008
Pride is said to be one of the seven deadly sins, the deadliest, some say, of all. “A proud man,” C.S. Lewis once wrote, “is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you can’t see something that’s above you.” Looking down on things and people for too long can leave us spiritually blind. Pride is deadly when it blinds us to that of God in our brothers and our sisters.
Let Not the Sun Go Down on Your Anger by Rev. Jan Nielsen - Feb 3, 2008
Rather than letting anger blow us apart, or letting it lead us to blow other people apart, we need to take action. We need to do something to get at least some of the anger outside ourselves. Sit around and perseverate long enough and anger will win. If I do that, I may not appear angry on the outside, but inside anger and resentment will smolder and eat away my spirit. That’s no way to live.
Heed Not Unreal Gods: A Sermon on the Deadly Sin of Greed by Rev. Jan Nielsen - Jan 27, 2008
We don’t have to look far to find evidence of greed in our times. Read the papers. Watch the news. The names and faces change but the story is mostly the same. Someone had it pretty good, but couldn’t seem to get enough and wanted more, way more, and then went after it, at all costs, all notions of ethics and morality, all sense of right and wrong, be damned.
A Reflection on "The Peaceable Kingdom" by Rev. Jan Nielsen - Jan 13, 2008
The way out of despair for our world begins at home, in real life, with us, you and me, and the real life choices we make every day about how we will live. We don’t find hope by wishing for it. We don’t think our way into hope. We find our hope by what we do, with our hands and our feet, by how well we care – for one another, for ourselves and for our world.
"Oops . . . What Now?" by Rev. Jan Nielsen - Jan 6, 2008
You might think of our sins, yours and mine, as the cracks in our shells. The humble heart is not afraid of its cracks.
Is it True? by Rev. Jan Nielsen - Dec 9, 2007
Not all that long ago, as talk of Christmas began to creep into conversation, I heard a young teenager ask, in good Unitarian Universalist fashion, “Do you really believe the Christmas story? Were there really three wise men? I mean, what is true?”
Can We Pray for Miracles? by Rev. Jan Nielsen - Dec 2, 2007
Celebrations are good for the soul. Most of us, these days, could stand to celebrate more often, to find excuses, even, for rejoicing, for celebrating the blessings, large and small, of life. The way I see it, we should pass up no chances to celebrate, to say to ourselves, and to one another, it is good to be alive, together, here on this earth.
Gratitude: Name It, Live It, Share It by Rev. Jan Nielsen - Nov 18, 2007
All of the world’s great spiritual traditions teach that life is a gift, a gift for which we owe our thanks, and that we can grow wise in heart through the practice of thanksgiving.
Honoring the Earth by Rev. Jan Nielsen - Oct 28, 2007
This is not a “what’s wrong and how to fix it” sermon, nor is this a sermon about politics. This is not about liberal versus conservative or red states and blue states (and yes, it is really is getting to be that time again). The way I see it, how we care for this Earth is a moral issue, a spiritual issue. Nothing less than our very souls are at stake.
Honoring the Body by Rev. Jan Nielsen - Oct 14, 2007
We are all born as bodies, as beings with bodies, but it can take a lifetime to learn to honor our bodies. Part of the path toward spiritual maturity is learning to be at home in our bodies. “Becoming wiser about spiritual things,” writes Krista Tippett, “ . . . has meant learning to live in my body, not just my head.”
The Journey Home by Rev. Jan Nielsen - Jun 10, 2007
After we saw the sun set and then rise again, our plane landed in Copenhagen, bright and early on a Sunday morning. Our first stop was the passport window. I handed mine to the uniformed man. He studied it very carefully, in silence, and then here is what happened.
A Reading and a Reflection for Flower Communion Sunday - May 27, 2007
Your eyes may have shifted their gaze out these windows, out toward our birch trees, and you’ve probably drifted back in time, your heart trying to answer the unspoken question of the morning:
“Who saved you?” Like the poet, most of us will “end up owing (our) soul(s) to so many.” I know I have been saved, again and again.
We Are All Family by Rev. Jan Nielsen - May 20, 2007
Some of us come from “A Twice Named Family,” whether our family’s “soul food” is chitlins or vegetarian chili, pasta or pickled herring. We might detest the names we are called at home, but I promise you, someday, as you make your way through the world, you will long to hear the sound of a familiar voice calling you by your “name for home.”