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Sermons

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.**

December 20, 2020 - 10:00am
A Season of Lights (Online Service)
Monthly Theme: Stillness
Rev. Kikanza Nuri-Robins
There are several holidays this month that are celebrated with candles and strings of lights. Each of these holy days invokes the Light from the Darkness. How might your world be different if the light within you shone more brightly around you? Let us remember why we light our candles. Let us end 2020 looking forward to the light of the New Year and our contribution to its brightness.
December 13, 2020 - 10:00am
Our Divine Words (Online Service)
Monthly Theme: Stillness
Rev. Jeremiah Kalendae
 
“In the beginning was the Word… and the Word was G-d…” declares the scriptures of our Christian siblings. What about the words we speak and the ways we communicate? Is there something miraculous about our capacities for communication? What might religious wisdom teach us about good communication and the spiritual path?
December 6, 2020 - 10:00am
Mary: The Radical (Online Service)
Monthly Theme: Stillness
Rev. Jeremiah Kalendae
 
Our service explores the narratives and life of the most famous religious woman in the world, revered in the Christian and Islamic traditions, and often ignored by Protestantism. Let’s separate the myth from reality as we contemplate her life and a radical feminist revolution this Advent season.
November 29, 2020 - 10:00am
As-Sabur: The Most Patient (Online Service)
Rev. Jeremiah Kalendae
Sheikh Najm ad-Dīn Kubrà is called the “saint-making Sufi” because of the profound influence his early teachings had on so many Sufis, including the father of poet Jalaluddin Rumi. One of the essential character dispositions of the spiritual path according to Hz. Kubrà is the cultivation of patience. As-Sabur or The Most Patient is one of the 99 Beautiful Names of the Divine in Islam. This morning we will explore Sufi teachings on the spiritual path, learning to practice and appreciate patience in these challenging times.
November 22, 2020 - 10:00am
For All That is Our Life (Online Service)
Rev. Jeremiah Kalendae
Thanksgiving/Thanksgrieving is a time for appreciating the bounty of our lives and grieving the harm done to Indigenous peoples by settler colonialism. It is in our capacities to hold both gratitude and grief that we can resist a dominate culture that brutalizes BIPOC and enter into great solidarity with counter-cultural movements that are striving to protect our planet home and all of her people.
November 15, 2020 - 10:00am
Slinky, Silly Putty, and Rubber Bands (Online Service)
Rev. Kikanza Nuri-Robins
If Life is one trauma after another, how do we heal? As a species we are very resilient, always adapting to a changing environment. We can see this when we take a long view, but when we are in it, we can easily feel overwhelmed. The truth is that everyone has a sack of rocks. Sometimes, we carry our sack of wounds and worries alone, sometimes we have someone to help us carry it, sometimes we just leave it by the side of the road so that we can use both hands for wiping our tears. Most of the time, we ultimately carry on.
 
How do you do it? Resilience. Kintsugi is a Japanese art form of repairing pottery with gold. The pottery is made functional again, and the cracks and breaks are highly visible, shining with the gold that seals them.  Kintsugi (金継ぎ, “golden joinery”) is also known as Kintsukuroi (金繕い, “golden repair”). What keeps you going? What helps you move through the pain and disappointments of life? What is your metaphor for resilience?
November 8, 2020 - 10:00am
We Hold These Truths...(Online Service)
Rev. Jeremiah Kalendae
We gather following the election to reflect upon our liberal religious principles as strong moral guides in times of tumult and change. We are a prophetic tradition that has helped to lead social progress in our country throughout its history. Today we explore the application of our principles to this new era and envision a future of justice and equality for all.
 
 
November 1, 2020 - 10:00am
Our Beloved Dead (Intergenerational Online Service)
Rev. Jeremiah Kalendae
 
Note:  Setting our clocks back as Daylight Savings ends
 
All Hallows and Día de los Muertos arrives in this season of spirits. All around the globe, this is a time for honoring our ancestors and communing with our beloved dead. Many traditions teach this period is when the veil separating worlds is at its thinnest. Join us for this special service as we explore this convergence of holidays and the meaning of death in the midst of life. 
 
As we prepare to create our annual ofrenda (offering altar) for “Our Beloved Dead” service, you are invited to bring pictures, mementos, marigold flowers, fruit, or other offerings to be placed on the ofrenda in the sanctuary. To include items in the service, you can drop them off on Thursday, October 29, from 10 am to 4 pm. You may want to call ahead to let the church staff know you’re coming to drop the items off. Please be sure to wear a mask, practice social distancing, and label anything you would like to pick up next week.  Tel.310-829-5436 ext. 102 or 101.
 
 
 
October 25, 2020 - 10:00am
Requiem for Hope: A Tribute (Online Service)
Monthly Theme: Deep Listening
Rev. Jeremiah Kalendae
 
2020 has been quite a year. Between the pandemic, fires and climate catastrophes, and the general political landscape, there is no doubt that we have lost many lives.  This year, the choir presents its Requiem to pay tribute to all that is lost and what we have gained. We would like to dedicate this service to our healthcare workers; justice leaders Ruth Bader Ginsburg and John Lewis; the countless Black lives that we lost to systemic brutality, to get the discussion of equality on the table, George Floyd and Breonna Taylor among them; lives lost because of COVID-19, to natural disasters. We also honor the souls in our own community that have moved forward from this earth to join the ancestors; we will dedicate new bricks in our beautiful Memorial Garden. May the music offered in this service be meditative, reflective, and healing, ushering us to a more hopeful tomorrow.
October 18, 2020 - 10:00am
Listening with the Heart (Online Service)
Monthly Theme: Deep Listening
Rev. Kikanza Nuri-Robins
 
Have you ever wished that someone would just stop talking and LISTEN to you?  Have you ever felt you were listening to someone but even though you understood the words, you were missing the meaning?  Sometimes rather than listening with your ears and processing with your brain, you need to listen with your heart and take in the meaning of the message THERE.  Heart Tones.  Heart Songs.  Heart Sounds.  When should you shift from the head to the heart?  How can you use both head and heart?  Approaching the speaker with the appropriate Listening Attitude is the key to listening as a spiritual practice.  Listening with your heart.  Wholly Listening.  Holy Listening.