Sermons Archive
The Art of Imperfection
May 20, 2008
Rev. Lydia Ferrante-Roseberry
May 11, 2008 Boulder Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
“There is in all of us, a place of pure perfection”.
I love that sentiment. Maybe I’ll find mine after I find all my mismatched socks!
Read More...Love and Reason: Exploring Humanism
May 20, 2008
By Rev. Lydia Ferrante-Roseberry
May 4, 2008 Boulder Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
Are you a humanist?
In a congregational survey from a year and a half ago, 58% of you stated that you were.
Of course, the congregation has grown by over 25% since then, but I’d guess that number still remains high.
In the survey, humanism was defined for you as:
“I believe that human beings are responsible for ‘goodness’ and ‘meaning’, and that we must rely on one another for support.”
While that statement describes a part of humanism, it also soft-pedals an essential element of this belief system. All humanism, even what is called ‘religious humanism’ does not believe in any supernatural, transcendent being or force that is beyond our reasoned comprehension.
Read More...Earth Day 2008: Joel Smith talks about Adaptation as a Response to Climate Change
April 20, 2008
By Joel Smith, presented April 20, 2008 at the Boulder Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
I spoke 6 or 7 years ago at a UU Forum on what might be considered a dangerous level of climate change. This was based on a chapter I had lead for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in a report published in 2001.
Back then, we identified five types of climate change impacts that could be considered “dangerous”: unique systems (endangered species), extreme events, equity of impacts, total economic impacts, and potential for events such as melting of Greenland.
We thought then that there could be problems with some of these impacts with as little as 2 degrees F rise above 1990 levels; an amount of warming we’ll probably surpass by around 2030. We thought there might be some benefits (such as improved agricultural output) at that amount of warming.
In general, we thought that even with a rise in temperature up to 3 to 5 degrees F, there could be a mix of impacts. Above that things looked bad across the board.
Read More...If God were a verb: Practicing Process Theology
April 06, 2008
Rev. Lydia Ferrante-Roseberry
April 6, 2008 – Boulder Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
Hildegard . . . meet Einstein!
Earth-based spirituality . . . meet quantum physics!
Welcome to the world of Process Theology!
I first encountered Process Theology in seminary, where one has the privilege of spending hours thinking and writing about heady things like the nature of existence. I’d rejected the white-bearded God of the Trinity and all that he stood for when I rejected Catholicism in my youth. For years, I’d made activism my sacrament, and I still do believe that we humans have a responsibility to each other and creation – after all, we are the creatures who seem to have gotten us into the most messes, and who seem to be the ones with the most wits to get us out, although that may be debatable. But activism without spirit –without the thread of something larger to hold it together – soon felt void.
Read More...From Whence Cometh Hope?
March 23, 2008
I’ve seen Hope. I’ve smelled it in dank hallways of Single Room Occupancy Hotels, when would-be loners dared to open their doors to a twenty-something young whipper-snapper of the community organizer, because she, in turn, had dared to invite herself into their lives.
I’ve seen Hope. I’ve heard it in the fierce determination of gritty grandmothers, reaching out to their neighbors to ensure safety for their grandchildren whom they are raising in the midst of apartment buildings filled with drug dealers.
I’ve seen Hope. I’ve walked it with immigrants shedding fear and meekness to demand their basic rights of heat and hot water in the rat infested studio apartments where they raise their families.
I’ve seen Hope. And it was a privilege to behold.
Read More...Seeking Hope in a Time of War
March 09, 2008
HEADLINE: March 3, 2008: U.S. Troops find 14 bodies shot in the head in Iraq
HEADLINE: March 6, 2008: Pair of bombs kills 53 in Baghdad
HEADLINE: March 8, 2008: Mass Grave found in Iraq, estimated at 100 bodies
How did that feel to hear these headlines from this past week? How does it feel to you on a daily basis to have this information about the suffering of others served to you by the media? Obviously, these headlines and their accompanying photos are aiding a growing anti-war movement. That movement is taking hold in our Unitarian Universalist congregations, but I’m not presumptuous enough to assume that we are all on the same page about when and how this war should end. Today, I leave that conversation to our forums, coffee –houses and blogs.
Read More...Unveiling Religious Intolerance
February 03, 2008
Emmanuel Levinas wrote: “Philosophy is afflicted, from its childhood, with an insurmountable allergy: a horror for the other which remains the other.”
Born in Lithuania to Jewish parents, Levinas left his native land at 17 to study philosophy in Germany, and later France. His family in Lithuania died in the Holocaust, while he, by then a French citizen and soldier, did forced labor as a prisoner of war in Germany. Meanwhile his wife and daughter hid in a French monastery.
Read More...“Life is Not Fair”
January 27, 2008
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