Church of the River Sermons

Waking up, both physically and spiritually, is a crucial part of the human experience. But it is also sometimes a very unpleasent experience. What does it mean to wake up as faithful people and to support each other through that sometimes challenging process?

Join us this Sunday at 11am as we ordain our former ministerial intern, Meredith Barber. Meredith supported us through the COVID pandemic, so now it's time to show our support for her! And don't forget to wear red, the traditional color for ordinations.

Most of us spend a lot of time and energy based on the belief that we do not have enough, are not doing enough and are not enough ourselves. This morning, we will focus in on the simple yet radical theological notion that to be a person of faith necessitates starting from a place where we understand and believe that we are enough.

The human condition requires us to embrace conflicting realities. The Hebrew Bible offers wisdom on how to hold opposing truths in one hand as we navigate the complexities of life.

Exploring the theme of justice found in the 2nd Principle, we will look to abolition as a vision of embodying our value of justice. What does justice look like today? What could justice look like tomorrow?

The Hebrew Bible is filled with characters practicing audacious hospitality: the act of going above and beyond what is required or expected in order to make people feel welcome. Are these stories merely illustrative of a time and place that no longer exists, or can we still practice what the Bible preaches?

Life has its ups and downs. And in the moment the individual events in our lives can seem huge and overwhelming. What does it mean, then, that on a long enough timeline, even our biggest triumphs and tragedies are only small parts of a much larger whole? Does it make them mean more or less? We will also be discussing Rev. Sam's second favorite band, The Ramones.

Earlier this month, we talked about the impact that the binding of Isaac had on Isaac. This week we'll be asking what impact the event had on Abraham. Did he regret it? Did he feel at peace with it? And what does Abraham's possible regret teach us about our own failures?

This week we have a dual sermon from Lindsay Donnelly-Bullington and Rev. Sam Teitel. Lindsay and Rev. Sam will be talking about acknowledging difficult truths in our personal and religious histories and finding ways to face those truths with honest and compassion.

What do Unitarian Universalists have to say about the concept of Grace? And, is there really yet another gruesome Hebrew Bible story that Rev. Sam hasn't preached about yet? (Yes, apparently there is).

What are the possibilities of a happy new year during the unpredictable evolution of a pandemic?

Welcome to our Christmas Eve Service at Church of the River.

Benjamin Rieux, the doctor and narrator of The Plague, the 1947 novel by Albert Camus, reflects at the end about the contingency and fragility of human existence by observing that "joy is always imperiled." What does Advent teach us about waiting for that imperiled joy?.

This Covenant Sunday we will all be renewing and reinvigorating our commitments to The Church of the River. We will also be talking about how we can relate to a herd of pigs.

We often think of peace as being something that we work towards, as a goal to set our sights on. But what would happen if we viewed peace as a state of being in the present? Also, what do you do when a legendary religious scholar randomly calls you ugly?

What if we are the ones we've been waiting for? The Advent season is often seen as a time of waiting and stillness, but what would happen if we made plans and put them into action? Like Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz in the Hebrew Scriptures, we can make our way in the world with active hope and loving kindness. There is an opportunity here to find healing, remember our wholeness, and create a beautiful beloved community.

This week we will be finishing up our discussion of Southern food by talking about our relationship to the land on which we live, and how the land on which we live provides us food and sustenance and also fraught and complicated history.

The Salem Witch Trials were a horrific event in our country's history. However there is a lesson to be learned from those events, and a message that is still relevant today.

For the third part of Horror Bible 2021 we will be looking at the Salem Witch Trials, and at the various Biblical passages that were used to justify them. We will also be talking about the ways in which the impact of these events is still being felt today.