Below you'll find a selection of sermons by our Senior Minister, Rev. Jan Nielsen, and our Interim Associate Minister, Rev. Sarah Person.
Have Courage by Rev. Jan Nielsen - October 26, 2008
Some of us know the challenge and struggle to be who we are
in a way that is basic, and deeply personal.
I stand in awe of the courage
I hear in the stories of my sisters and brothers
who risked rejection, and sometimes their very safety,
when they stood up and told their families and their world
that they were in love with someone of the same gender.
You had to, you have told me, to find any peace at all,
to be who you really are.
That, too, is what courage looks like.
Courage is the price Life exacts for granting peace.
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.”