Intern Minister Mira Mickiewicz – “Listening to the Earth”
The lengthening dark invites us to turn inward, seeking comfort and the miracle of hope. Listening is perhaps the greatest gift we can offer one another. We cannot be loved, if we cannot be known. How can we listen each other into speech, into comfort and into joy?
Sometimes finding our way to gratitude is difficult. But it may that it is in those moments of difficulty that the spiritual practice of gratitude is most important.
We come together to nourish the individual spirit and to build beloved community. On this United Nations Sunday, we reflect on the balance between individualism and the common good.
We are connected to others through family, friendship, shared purposes, and our faith traditions. Each of these pathways has a body of ancestors whose lives paved the way for our own. What can our UU spiritual ancestors, who endured persecution and even martyrdom for their beliefs, teach us about living together in community?
Is life a Welcome Table or a zero-sum game? Do we live in abundance or scarcity? These are theological questions as much as economic. Providing homes for the houseless is no more expensive than paying for all the results of a permanently houseless population. What habits of the heart prevent us from building Beloved Community?
Our liberal religious faith is grounded in covenant, the promises we make and the promises we keep. The freedom of this way of being religious is easy to affirm. The equally important practices of confession, compassion and compromise can pose more of a challenge. What does our covenant demand of us?