Back in the pulpit...

Monday, November 23, 2009

My family has been attending our local UU church (First Unitarian Universalist Society of Exeter - FUUSE) for about three years now. While, Cynthia has been a pretty active participant and leader in that time, I've been doing the "Daddy Patrol". Basically that means keeping my eye on the twins while they were in either the nursery (or staying home with them) while Cynthia did the church stuff.  But now that the girls have gotten a bit older, I'm finally getting to participate again. Having done the operations thing in the past, it was time to flex my more spiritually inclined muscles and get back in the pulpit.  Since our minister is taking a sabbatical this year, I joined the Worship Committee.

All I can say is... Yeah!   It has been almost 6 years since I've been in the pulpit or done much worship leading (if I don't count the Shaman work with Men's Divisions and the Legacy Discovery). This was definitely the right choice for me and I'm glad to say, well received. Not just by the congregation, but by myself. I find my spiritual work seems richer when done in front of the world. Almost like asking at any moment, "What would (Jesus/Buddha/Mohammed/Einstein) do?" But then sharing that experience with others. Seems to make it more real. Maybe that's the other side of why the evangelical christians testify. It's not just spreading the word of their truth, but the joy that comes from sharing experience.

For a link to the sermon, and the audio from the service, click here.
   "The Transient and the Permanent" 2009, William Young & Rev. Kendra Ford

The sermon, The Transient and The Permanent, was actually based on another sermon, given in 1841 by Theodore Parker. Parker was a Unitarian minister who was examining the nature of Christian practice at his time. He was proposing that many of the practices and doctrines of faith that people were treating as "permanent" or important were in fact transitional, transient; dogma that shifted from generation to generation. Yet there was/is a permanence in christian teaching, that the words and lessons given to us by Jesus have value, regardless of the dogma, practice, or changes that were being used to define the faithful.

I've also captured Parker's sermon here.  It's a bit more of a read. But for the liberally religious, it's quite a landmark sermon and good reading. You can see, from it, why so many decided that maybe he wasn't Christian anymore.
  "The Transient and the Permanent" 1841, Rev. Theodore Parker

William