Rev. Babcock's sermons in 2001

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DATE	SERMON TITLE	Notes
12/23/2001	Generosity	Most of us could afford to give away more of our time, talent, and treasure than we do. Too often, we function out of what fund raisers call "the myth of scarcity." What if we were to act from the reality of our abundance? What would it mean to cultivate what the mystics call "an abundant heart"? The sermon will investigate.
12/9/2001	Centering Down	"How good it is to center down!/ To sit quietly and see one's self pass by!" wrote the late Howard Thurman. Part of my joy in the holiday season is that it gives me an opportunity for reflection and turning within. Christmas/Hanukkah is a meditative time, perhaps made more so by the shortening days of early winter. I hope that I will find the time to sit near the fireplace and to contemplate during the next couple of weeks. I hope that I will find time for "centering down."
12/2/2001	Just As I Am	It's been almost 100 years since Charlotte Elliott's popular hymn "Just As I Am" last appeared in a Unitarian or Universalist hymnbook. There are some good reasons for this, but the great theme of the hymn--in Paul Tillich's words, that "You are Accepted"-- is one which never grows out of date. All of us long to be accepted "just as we are." The sermon will investigate.
11/18/2001	The True Altar	"The grateful soul of the wise person is the true altar of God," wrote Philo Judaeus (c.20 BC - AD 50). After all these years, who's to argue? This is our annual Thanksgiving Service.
11/11/2001	'In Unbroken Line'	This morning we will once again welcome new members (those who have decided to become voting members and who have signed an Application for Membership) into the fellowship of our church community in a Ceremony of Recognition. They will join the "unbroken line" of those who have constituted this gathered community that we know as The First Religious Society in Newburyport. That lineage goes back 275 years here in Newburyport, and 365 years if we include our roots in the First Parish of Newbury. What does it mean to be part of such a legacy? We will also celebrate the republication of Minnie Atkinson's History of the First Religious Society, in recognition of our 200th Anniversary Celebration.
11/4/2001	Living Affirmatively in Uncertain Times	Recently I was asked to serve on a panel responding to the question of "moving forward into a new reality." Since September 11, our lives have become a lot more uncertain than they were before. Some of us, adults and kids, are having difficulty getting on with our lives. How do we go on in the face of our fears to meet this new reality?
10/21/2001	Comfort Yourselves Together	My sermon title for this morning is taken from the New Testament, 1 Thessalonians 5:11 (KJV): "Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do." In times like these, we are reminded more strongly than ever of the importance of community and the need to be together as human beings. It is also important that we listen carefully to one another's fears, concerns, hopes, and convictions. That is the only way that we will discover the truth. As St. Paul reminds us later in the same passage, "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." Consider bringing a friend to church!
10/14/2001	Islam: a Primer	The religious tradition known as Islam is much in the news these days. Often, it is treated as one movement, monolithically, when, in fact, like all of the great world religions, it is many traditions. Not all Muslims are fundamentalist fanatics: most are not. Approximately one-seventh of the world's population is Muslim. Given recent events, it behooves us to know more about Islam, and more about what one journalist has called "the roots of Muslim rage." The sermon will attempt a brief introduction.
10/7/2001	Holding On and Letting Go	In light of the events of September 11, my sermon topic, previously scheduled for September 16, takes on an added poignancy. As I wrote in an earlier Steeple, "This year Sabrina and I joined the ranks of those sending a child off to college. The sermon will reflect upon the difficult but necessary process of letting go: knowing when it is OK to let go, but also knowing when it is OK to hold on. It's one of the greatest challenges life has to offer.
9/30/2001	Rededication of the Meetinghouse
9/16/2001	The Burden of Why	Response to events of September 11, 2001
9/9/2001	Was He or Wasn’t He?	We will celebrate the life and ministry of the Rev. Thomas Fox, who served the First Religious Society from 1831 to 1846.
8/5/2001	Traveling at Home, Traveling Within
6/17/2001	Being Faithful in Small Things	My last sermon of the current church year will be a reflection on some words of Mother Teresa of Calcutta: "Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies." Summer, with its opportunities for rest and renewal, lies ahead. This one could lead anywhere!
6/3/2001	The Transylvania Connection	The centerpiece of my sabbatical next year will be a return trip and extended visit to Romania to visit our Unitarian Partner Church in the region known as Transylvania. The name "Transylvania" means "land beyond (or behind) the forest." I will speak about why I think it is important for our congregation to be engaged in this partnership, as well as explain a bit about Transylvanian Unitarianism,--both its similarities and differences from North American Unitarian Universalism
5/27/2001	Memory and Forgiveness	This morning I return to two of my favorite subjects: the power of memory and our human need for forgiveness. Memorial Day is one of my favorite holidays because it reminds me to remember the past--where I have come from. All of us need forgiveness from time to time; memory can be both a help and a hindrance in the quest for forgiveness of ourselves and others. The sermon will investigate.
5/13/2001	Nurturing	The suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton once made the claim that, "Men as a general rule have very little reverence for trees." The sermon will investigate this claim from the male point of view. Can men be nurturers, too?
5/6/2001	The Beloved Community: The Church as Monastary	In his book Transforming Liberal Congregations for the New Millenium, Roy Phillips writes, ". . . the local church could be a kind of in-town, day-by-day monastary, a retreat site, so to speak. Our church must be a place set apart where laypeople go to find support and challenge in their personal paths and plans for spiritual development." The sermon will investigate this idea of the church as monastary.
4/15/2001	An Easter Manifest	The sermon will be a "manifest" in both senses of the word: an Easter manifesto and a story of Easter made manifest.
4/8/2001	Sweet Release	The central theme of Passover, writes Theodor Gaster, is "Release," on the seasonal, historical, and human planes. The sermon this morning will investigate the festival of Passover.
3/25/2001	Getting Involved	The theme for this year's Every Member and Friend Canvass is "Get Involved." This morning, I will speak about what "getting involved" means to me, and what it might mean for you. As this year's canvass gets under way, I hope that each of you may find the incentive to be generous givers to the beloved community that we are attempting to build here at the First Religious Society in Newburyport
3/18/2001	Saintliness Reconsidered	The sermon will consider the notion of "saintliness" with special attention to Ireland's patron saint, Patrick. William James, in his classic work The Varieties of Religious Experience, calls saintliness "the collective name for the ripe fruits of religion in a character." We desperately need our saints: real ones, that is.
3/4/2001	Remembering History	My sermon this morning will reflect on my recent trip to Washington, DC, as well as other issues currently in the news. I will attempt to look at what is religious about history and why it is important to remember where we have come from. Our religious ancestors, both Unitarian and Universalist, were deeply optimistic about the future. Is there still reason for optimism? Is there, as some contemporary theologians believe, a "trajectory" toward greater humaneness at work in history? The sermon will investigate.
2/11/2001	By Liberal Things Shall We Stand	All the indications are that we are in for four years of conservative political leadership. I don't think of the word "conservative" as necessarily negative and perjorative; after all, it shares the same root as "conservation," something in which I fervently believe. Neither, however, do I think of the word "liberal" as negative: something which in recent years has become all too common. The sermon will look at the meaning of liberalism, particularly in the religious context. My sermon title, believe it or not, is taken from the King James Version of the Bible (Isaiah 32: 8).
2/4/2001	Heaven and Hell	In July of 1999, the Jesuit magazine La Civita Cattolica suggested that Hell, contrary to popular thought, is not a literal place, but simply the absence of the divine. As a good Universalist, I never believed in a literal Hell, anyway. But if there is no such place as Hell, what of Heaven? Can we have it only one way (and that the better way), or is it both ways or none? The sermon will investigate current thinking on Heaven and Hell.
1/21/2001	By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them	This morning I will revisit the old argument of faith versus works. Among other things, the sermon will ask us to look at our commitments and at what it means, or might mean, to live a committed life. Unitarian Universalists have always believed that faith must be manifested in action. See you in church!
1/14/2001	No Place for Hate?