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This is a full list of sermons presented at UUCCSM since mid-1999. Links to sermon texts are included when made available by their authors. Audio recordings are also available for most sermons presented after September, 2007 by our staff ministers and others directly affiliated with our church (just click the speaker icon next to each sermon where it's available*). Audio from guest speakers is posted only when we have their permission to share it.
Hard copies of sermons by Rev. Jeremiah Kalendae are available in the church office. Contact office assistant Sibylla Nash at office@uusm.org if you have a request.
"Leaving Room for Hope: Sermons for Uncertain Times," a book of Minister Emerita Judith Meyer's sermons, is available here.
**Please Note: Video recordings are available for sermons with a small TV icon showing at the bottom of the sermon listing. Just click the icon to watch the service.**
(One Service at 1030 a.m.) These days there is so much to do work, family and social justice pursuits all demand our attention. Thomas Merton says that overcommitting causes as much violence as other sources. Are we doing more harm by not attending to ourselves in the midst of all these demands? The Rev. Sandie Richards is Minister at the Church in Ocean Park, and works alongside Judith in the Westside Interfaith Council and on social justice issues in Santa Monica. Music David Ellis, Guitar
In his recent book, The Triumph of Meanness, Nicolaus Mills writes that American society has become so selfish and fragmented, we are no longer capable of achieving "social justice on the basis of a broad universalism." Unitarian Universalists may be among the few who still believe it is possible. Are we moving hopelessly out of step or carrying much needed hope? Music for 930 a.m. service Michael Lamb, Tenor
If you wonder what the children and youth do when they leave the sanctuary every Sunday, come this Sunday and find out. This year we became familiar with our Unitarian and Universalist forebears and examined UU values. On RE Sunday, each class makes a presentation about important aspects from their year of learning. It is sure to be full of surprises and insight. We will honor the volunteers who make it all possible. Music for 930 a.m. service Melissa Reiner, Violin
We welcome back to our pulpit the Rev. Jim Conn, whose sermon is about "how listening to Rilke changed my ride home..." Jim is currently urban strategist for the California-Pacific Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. Music for 9:30 a.m. service Dreya Weber, Voice and Guitar
How will memory serve us as the events and people this day commemorates recede into the past? What must we take care never to forget? How will it matter?
Everyone says we are experiencing a resurgence of spirituality these days, but if that is so, then why is the world becoming a harsher and less forgiving place? Spirituality does not amount to much if we pursue it without concern for others. The service includes a Welcoming Ceremony for new members of the congregation.
The nineteenth century produced some remarkable women, especially Margaret Fuller, who spent the last three years of her life in Rome covering (and abetting) the republican revolution as a journalist and partisan. Given the radical roots of Mother's Day in Julia Ward Howe's historic anti-war proclamation of the same era, this Sunday is a good day to look into their activities.
There's nothing more frightening than the casual questions of friends and strangers who ask "What's Unitarian Universalism?" We know who we are, but how can we explain the depth of this complex and wonderful faith in a clear and attractive way? Our difficulty in answering the simple questions of religion is an identity problem we must tackle if we want our churches and our movement to grow. Ricky Hoyt is minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Verdugo Hills, La Crescenta.
The effective channeling of our religious values into social programs is a perennial problem for Unitarian Universalist congregations. Each of us has our favorite cause, and action on any particular issue can produce unintended effects, both within and outside our community. This sermon takes the position that these obstacles are more apparent than real. The Rev. Silvio Nardoni, a member of our congregation, is a graduate of Harvard Divinity School, where he and Judith Meyer were classmates. Best known to our congregation for his popular August sermon series on spirituality and film, Silvio is an attorney at law in Glendale.
Why do you seek the living among the dead? the disciples were asked as they peered into the tomb. Turning on their heels, they saw someone they'd never seen before. Just as we surrender all hope, something brand new whispers in our ear. A celebration of eternal life, the living Spirit. The Rev. Meg Riley directs the Unitarian Universalist Association's Washington Office for Faith in Acton, and serves as a Minister Associated with All Soul's Church - Unitarian in Washington, DC. She is national co-chair of Equal Partners in Faith, and serves on the national board of the Interfaith Alliance, and the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. She is also a member of the National Advisory Committee of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
