Unitarian Church Of Lincoln

At the congregational auction, Oscar offered the choice of primary text of May 27's sermon.  As of press time, he thus does not know what this sermon will be....other than creative.

Before gathering for our spring Congregational Meeting, we reflect on what it means to be a community that covenants together, managing our affairs together in a democratic process.  What does this very practical choice say about our spiritual and ethical values?

“Civility is the hard work of staying present even with those with whom we have deep-rooted and fierce disagreements" (The Institute for Civility).  We will share reflections from our own grappling with this challenging call. Sermon by Becky Seth.

Earth Day, first celebrated in 1970, was a conscious attempt to channel the energy of the anti-war movement into the nascent environmental movement.  As we approach 50 years of Earth Days, we take stock of the challenges faced, and the challenges that remain to the interconnected web of existence of which we are a part.

In 1907, Francis Galton showed that a crowd was better able to guess the weight of an Ox than any single person in it.  What other unexpected skill emerge when we work together rather than as a collection of individuals?

Spring has arrived!  Astronomically, at least.  This Sunday we celebrate green and growing things, and the cycles of nature that refresh and balance our lives.  We also reflect on the lessons of the March for Our Lives, and what might emerge from a moment where the balance seems to be starting to tip.

“Put your own oxygen mask on first” is sound practical advice, but in the midst of noise and anxiety, very hard to do.  How do we set our intentions, in order to take care of ourselves that we may take care of others?

Our fourth principle calls us to the “free and responsible search for truth and meaning.”  On this Sunday when we welcome members who have joined us in the last year, we reflect on that search.

“Roots hold me close, wings set me free” goes the one of our better known hymns.  How do we balance the roots of Unitarian Universalism with the wings setting us toward new horizons?

Martin Luther King wrote that "...there are certain things in our nation and in the world which I am proud to be maladjusted."  It can be easy to adjust ourselves to injustices in the world, writing them off as "just the way things are."  How can we push back against this complacency, and remain maladjusted? Content Note:  Discussion of gun violence, school shootings.

Our theme this February is persistence.  We’ll talk this morning about the things that persist, that abide from generation to generation.  What makes certain actions and beliefs persist, despite everything? 

From guest preacher Jack Gaede:  In the chaos, bustle, and hurry of the winter season, where are you finding peace, stillness, and simplicity? Many of our poets and teachers speak of small things— of the mundane, and they often find such joy and contentment there. What are the small things in your life? Where do you find your simple joys?

Join us for an informal time as we gather to sing carols and tell stories as a community. 

This first Sunday of Advent, two days after World AIDS Day, we gather to ask what it means to be a people of hope.  We live in the hope of a better world, built by human hands.  But that better world can seem far from our lived reality at times.  How do we remain anchored to a vision of hope in an unhopeful time?

On the Sunday after Thanksgiving we gather to celebrate the abundance of our community and our lives together.  Join us for a morning of singing, storytelling, and gratitude.

Parker Palmer writes: “The quality of our active lives depends heavily on whether we assume a world of scarcity or a world of abundance.” When every day can feel like a struggle to have ‘enough,’ what does it mean to assume a world of abundance?

Abundance is usually thought of as a goal: to have abundance is to be free of need or want.  But what happens when ‘life comes at us in bulk,’ when we have an abundance of moments that we would really rather not go through all at once?

The end of October is a time to remember.  Different traditions have different names: Samhein, Day of the Dead, All Souls, but each is a time to remember those who came before us.  This Sunday we remember those who have died in the last year, and all the ancestors that give us courage.

This past spring, at the request of Unitarian Universalists of color across the country, 682 UU congregations held the first UU White Supremacy Teach-in.  Fighting white supremacy means both resisting its most blatant forms “out there,” and disrupting its systemic manifestations within, and we once again join with the broader Unitarian Universalist community in this continental event.

This week marks the Jewish festival of Sukkot, an agricultural festival that many observers celebrate in temporary dwelling places.  These tents symbolize both the celebration of harvest time, and the fragile nature of agricultural life.