Rev. Babcock's sermons in 2006

Synopses for 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005

DATE	SERMON TITLE	Notes
12/24/2006	The Singing of the Angels	The late Howard Thurman once wrote, "There must be always remaining in every one's life some place for the singing of angels-some place for that which in itself is breathlessly beautiful. . . ."
12/10/2006	Taking Back Freedom	Theodor H. Gastor writes, "As a festival of liberty, [Hanukkah] celebrates more than the independence of one people-it glorifies the right to freedom of all peoples." In recent years we've heard a lot about "freedom," so much so that I have begun to feel uncomfortable talking and even (in hymns) singing about it. I've felt the same way about "religion" for some time. The sermon will look at how we might reclaim some words and concepts that have become troublesome.
12/3/2006	The Good News	Religious author and Episcopal priest Barbara Brown Taylor writes, "The good news is always beginning somewhere in the world, for those with ears to hear and hearts to go wherever the way may lead." I want to believe this. As we enter the holiday season, the sermon will investigate whatever good news there might be coming to light.
11/19/2006	Missing History	In his recent book Mayflower, author Nathaniel Philbrick writes that "In the American popular imagination, the nation's history began with the Pilgrims and then leapfrogged more than 150 years to Lexington and Concord and the Revolution." One might well ask what happened in the interlude between the Pilgrims' first Thanksgiving and the American Revolution. During that time, the relationship of the colonists to the Native American population changed drastically. One change had to do with the colonists' worship of what Rhode Island colony founder Roger Williams called "God Land." America's bloodiest war also took place during the interlude. The sermon will investigate this "missing history."
11/12/2006	Living in the Questions	The poet Rainer Maria Rilke has written, "Do not search for answers to be given to you; if given they would be of no use, for you could not live them. For the present live in the questions, and little by little, and almost unconsciously, you will enter the answers and live them also."
11/5/2006	What Remains?	Harriet Doerr has written, "During your life, everything you do and everyone you meet rubs off in some way. Some bit of everything you experience stays with everyone you've ever known, and nothing is lost. That's what's eternal, these little specks of experience in a great enormous river of life that has no end."
10/22/2006	The Culture of Fear	The goal of terrorism, as we must know by now, is to create fear, even if the fear it creates is not always completely rational. But terrorists are not the only people who benefit from creating fear. Legitimate governments also benefit from keeping people fearful. Political parties claim that they will keep us "safe." They stand to gain by keeping us fearful. But life is not safe: it is inherently unsafe and insecure. It always ends with our death. A few years before World War II, in the midst of the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt said, "You have nothing to fear but fear itself." I believe that he was right. The sermon will investigate.
10/15/2006	Something Else About Mary	With the popularity of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, Mary Magdalene has elicited renewed interest from religious and non-religious folks alike. Among other interesting facts, Mary Magdalene was almost certainly not a repentant prostitute. But she may well have been an important disciple of Jesus. The sermon will look at some recent scholarship that suggests there is "something else about Mary."
10/8/2006	Beginning Again in Love	Unitarian Universalists have always been certain about one thing: it is never too late to make amends and to improve on what we are. This past week our Jewish neighbors and friends celebrated Yom Kippur, the most important holiday of the Jewish year. It is a holiday about forgiveness, and starting over. It's a message we can never hear too often.
9/24/2006	The Double Nickel	This week I turned 55. When I was working at Maine Maritime Academy in the early 1990's, one of my older co-workers overheard me complaining about having reached my 40's. "Wait until you hit the double nickel," he said. Well, I've finally hit it. The sermon will reflect on what, if anything, I have learned in the intervening years about aging, time's passage, and life in general. Though there have been some big losses along the way, it's not nearly as bad as I expected.
9/17/2006	Showing Up	This fall the First Religious Society's visioning process continues apace. An old familiar saying has it that, "Just showing up is half the battle." It's true in just about every aspect of life. In order for our visioning process to be meaningful, we need as much participation as possible. This means all of you! It is important that you just show up. The sermon will attempt to encourage you to do just that.
9/10/2006	Still Searching	This summer I traveled far and wide, but I still haven't found the answer. I'm still searching. The sermon will investigate the difference between a religion that claims to know ultimate truth and one that suspects that truth is ultimately unknowable. We will re-gather our worshipping community from the summer hiatus with an intergenerational family service.
8/27/2006	The Restless Heart
7/30/2006	Summer Questions
6/18/2006	Until We Meet Again . . .	As we complete our regular schedule of worship services and enter summer mode, I will reflect on beginnings, endings, and inbetween. It has been a good year, but summer beckons, with its opportunity, if we will take it, for rest and renewal. I look forward to seeing you in church!
6/4/2006	Tongues of Fire	This Sunday marks the day of Pentecost, also known as Whitsunday. Pentecost is an important holiday among Transylvanian Unitarians, who celebrate one of their four yearly communion services on Whitsunday. We American Unitarian Universalists generally don't pay much attention to it. The sermon will investigate why this might be so, and whether Pentecost still has anything to offer us.
5/28/2006	The Problem with Memory	Memorial Day is one of my favorite holidays. Perhaps that is because memory is one of my favorite subjects. Memory, as we know, can be both good and bad. As we age, memory can become a big problem, and not just because we can't remember things. Sometimes, we can remember too much. Perhaps this has theological implications. The sermon will investigate the problem of memory.
5/14/2006	Motherhood (and Peace?)	May has been designated "Peace, Diversity, and Tolerance Month" here in Newburyport. Mother's Day as we know it originated in 1872 as a day to celebrate both motherhood and peace. It had a political intent. Unitarian Julia Ward Howe (also author of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic") wrote the original proclamation, which is included in our hymnbook as a responsive reading. Perhaps it is time for Mother's Day to return to its origins.
5/7/2006	Back to the Future	This morning we will once again welcome new members-those who have decided to become legal voting members of the congregation and who have submitted an Application for Membership-into the fellowship of the First Religious Society in a Ceremony of New Member Recognition. The sermon will consider the ways in which we honor the past by envisioning and planning for our future. This will be the second of two sermons related to the visioning process currently getting under way in our church (it was preceded by "Becoming a Great Church" in January). I look forward to seeing you at this special service!
4/30/2006	What We Owe Our Children	Some would say we already give them too much. But are we giving them what they really need? The sermon will investigate.
4/16/2006	The Life That Now Is	". . . I ask you . . . whether you have kept this old wholesome faith in, and love for the life that now is; because I really know of no way so sure to the loftiest and holiest life of heaven, as that which lies directly through a deep, quick sympathy with the life on earth." Thus wrote the great 19th century advocate of an "evolutionary" religion, Robert Collyer. The sermon will investigate the truth of Collyer's claim.
4/9/2006	Radical Hospitality	This is the Sunday traditionally celebrated in the Christian churches as Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday commemorates Jesus' entry into Jerusalem and his teaching there. That teaching was not welcomed by the authorities then, and I suspect that it would not be particularly welcome now. None of us likes to listen to what we disagree with, especially when it threatens our power or prestige. Religious writer Kathleen Norris has written (in The Cloister Walk) that " . . . hospitality is at the center of it all. In a world in which we are so easily labeled and polarized by our differences--man/woman, Protestant/Catholic, gay/straight, feminist/chauvinist--monastic hospitality is a model of the kind of openness that we need if we are going to see and hear each other at all." The sermon will investigate the challenge of "radical hospitality."
4/2/2006	Spring in Our Souls	Last year around this time I received the following e-mail from a Transylvanian minister through the Partner Church Council chatline: "Dear Friends: In the name of the Unitarians from the Maros District we wish you Happy Easter. Usually we have a warm springtime for this holiday but this year it came a little bit late. Mostly we have spring in our souls." What would it take for us to have spring in our souls? There is so much to be discouraged about, but our faith calls us to be hopeful, if not optimistic. The sermon will investigate.
3/19/2006	Charismata	Traditionally, within the Christian church, the charismata refer to the gifts or blessings, spiritual and temporal, which are bestowed on each of us in order to help us fulfill our vocation in life. Such blessings include gifts of teaching, administration, healing, prophecy, and, not least, "almsgiving." In another place, I have referred to these blessings as "your time, your talent, and your treasure." Charismata are closely connected to the topic of my sermon of March 5, "What Matters." What does each of us have to give? The sermon will investigate.
3/12/2006	Humanism Revisited	We have all heard a lot in recent years about the supposed evils of "secular humanism" whatever that is. But humanism actually started out as a religious movement. Indeed, many people describe themselves as "religious humanists." And humanism has played a very important role in Unitarian Universalism, not to mention in western civilization. So, what's wrong with humanism? The sermon will revisit this most important, religious way of being.
3/5/2006	What Matters?	Perhaps it is an obvious question, but how often do we really give it our full consideration? What really matters to you? If you had your "druthers," how would you choose to spend your time? What are the things in your life that are really important to you, and are they getting your attention? And what are the things that matter most "out there"? The sermon will investigate this most essential religious question. The children will join us for their Circle in the Big Church, and the Young Church Choir will sing.
2/19/2006	Acedia	Acedia (ah-SEE-dia) is sometimes defined as "spiritual torpor and apathy," sometimes as "ennui": boredom or indifference, and sometimes even as "stupor." It's an old monastic term that we might even translate as "depression," or at least as "feeling blue." I don't know about you, but for me it covers a host of evils to which I am occasionally subject and to which I suspect that you are, too. It is especially so as I begin to long for the return of spring. The sermon will investigate.
2/5/2006	The Fruits of Compassion	Imagine if everyone abided by the Golden Rule. Historian of religion Karen Armstrong believes that it is at the heart of all religious traditions. It may be the one thing we all share in common. We live in difficult and challenging times. People are polarized not only across national boundaries, but within them. Religion is sometimes more of a hindrance than a help in this situation; often it is the cause of the polarization. Could it be otherwise? The sermon will investigate "the fruits of compassion."
1/29/2006	Questions at Night	My title is borrowed from the poem which is considered by some to be the greatest ever written in the Hungarian language, Mihaly Babits' "Question at Night": "why all this beauty, jewel, graven marble?" All of us struggle with the "why" questions. Some flippantly answer, "why not?" But we yearn for something more satisfying. Religion attempts to answer, not always very successfully. The sermon will investigate.
1/22/2006	Roger Williams' 'Lively Experiment'	Most of us take religious liberty for granted, but we shouldn't. Recent years have seen renewed attacks on the separation of church and state. We have heard some Christian groups claim that they are being discriminated against. Many would like to see religion - a particular kind of religion - reinserted in the public sphere. Many years ago, Roger Williams argued that people should be free to follow their consciences in matters of religion. He did this not because he wanted a stronger, religion-free state, but because he didn't want to see religion corrupted and meddled in by the civil authorities. He also disagreed with the way religion was sometimes used by those authorities-especially so in the treatment of native Americans. The sermon will investigate Roger Williams' "lively experiment."
1/8/2006	Becoming a Great Church	Beginning this month, the First Religious Society is embarking on a visioning process which we hope will set the course for our congregation for the next several years. It is our hope to engage as many of you as possible in this process. What would you like to see our church become in the next five years? What are the issues of most importance to you? What is most sacred? My sermon will attempt to suggest some of the areas we may want to explore. I look forward to seeing you in church!