Sermon Archive

Sunday October 30, 2011
Rev. Gary James
March of the Goblins: Facing Evil
9:15 and 11:15 am
The famous psychologist C. G. Jung wrote: The sad truth is that man’s real life consists of a complex of inexorable opposites – day and night, birth and death, happiness and misery, good and evil.  We are not even sure that one will prevail against the other, that good will overcome evil, or joy defeat pain.  Life is a battleground.  It always has been, and always will be; and if it were not so, existence would come to an end.

The 17^th century English Unitarian and poet, John Milton, author of Paradise Lost wrote this thoughtful epigram regarding evil: It was from out of the rind of one apple tasted, that the knowledge of good and evil, as two twins cleaving together, leaped forth into the world.  And perhaps this is that doom which Adam fell into of knowing good and evil:  that is to say, of knowing good by evil.  And therefore the state of man now is;  what wisdom can there be to choose, what continence to forbear, without the knowledge of evil?

The Book of Genesis, the creation story for Judaism and Christianity teaches us that if we are to know goodness and do good, we must first become conscious of evil.  It is only by understanding evil, including the evil within ourselves, that we can prevent its destructive manifestations.

My friend and colleague, Earl Holt is critical of Unitarian Universalism. Liberal theology, if it can be said to have an overriding weakness, tends toward a sometimes unrealistic optimism; hope is its central virtue.  But essential as hope is, it must be grounded in something deeper.  A potent religion must address the darkness, inner and outer.  The darkness is real.

The famous British radical psychologist, R. D. Laing, offers this wise insight: The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice.  And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice there is little we can do to change until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds.

October 23, 2011
Rev. Gary James
Why Am I Alive?
9:15 and 11:15 am
There are some who argue we are nothing more than genes and environment.  But I have known since childhood that I am more than what science alone can reveal.  We are all more than the physical reality that we presently perceive.  The meaning of our lives is invisible, however this does not mean it is not real or does not exist.  The visible itself has an invisible inner structure and the in-visible is the secret counterpart to the visible.  In the final analysis, we count for something only because of the essential we embody, and if we do not embody that, life is wasted.  How do we recover a sense of personal calling and a feeling of destiny.  What is your answer to the question:  Why am I alive?

 

October 16, 2011
Bill Schulz President of UUSC
The 8th Deadly Sin  
9:15 and 11:15 am 
How many of the seven deadly sins can you name?  How many have you not committed?  Bill Schulz, President of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC), will offer an eighth-one he contends is the worst of them all and one of which we all have been guilty at one time or another.  But hosannah!  He'll also describe how UUSC is working to vanquish this preeminent sin and, in the process, save your souls. Dr. William Schulz,has been in our pulpit several times in the past and has always inspired us to more fully live our UU values. After Bill Schulz's 11:15 service on Oct. 16, there will be a workshop "Human Rights and the UUSC Difference."  This will give everyone an opportunity to learn more about human rights in the world and how the UUSC approach is so valuable and useful. It will explain all the new programs the UUSC is undertaking- and what makes the UUSC unique and successful.  Do plan to attend.  Sandwiches will be available for purchase.  

October 9, 2011
Rev. Gary James
High Holy Day Sunday 
9:15 and 11:15 am
Come to High Holy Day Sunday, our Unitarian Universalist Day of At-one-ment. We recognize that our Unitarian Universalist roots go back over two thousand years and begin in ancient Judaism and so we celebrate  High Holy Day Sunday in the tradition of Yom Kippur.  This very special service drawing on the liturgy of the Day of Atonement will be lead by Reverend Gary James. Wayland Rogers will lead the choir and soloists in music specific to the holiday.  Many of the members of our congregation and their extended families consider this service to be the most beautiful and moving of all of our worship services in the church year.

October 3,  2011
Rev. Gary James
Annual Association Sunday: Celebrating Excellence in Ministries
9:15 and 11:15 am
This year we celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the Unitarian Universalist Association.  As we begin the next 50 years of our Association, the Unitarian Universalist Association is joining with our professional organizations and congregations to raise funds for outstanding continuing education and professional development for all of our religious professionals.  The UUA will partner with the Unitarian Universalist Minister’s Association [UUMA], the Unitarian Universalist Musicians Network [UUMA], the Liberal Religious Educators Association [LAREDA], and other professional organizations to celebrate Association Sunday on October 3, 2011. Proceeds from this service will be distributed as grants to support scholarships, continuing education, an assessment for our ministries and other projects that help religious professionals get the ongoing training they need to support thriving ministries. Thank you for growing our faith in one another and our way in religion.  We are better together!

September 25, 2011
Rev. Gary James
Building the Free Church – To Liberate the Spirit – To Create the Beloved Community
9:15 and 11:15am
Unitarian Universalism is much more than a radical commitment to a personal search  for truth and meaning. We are not an individualistic religion, but rather a communal spiritual journey.  The growth of our own souls is not the work we do individually, but as a community.  Our independent wills are intended to serve the interdependent web.

 

It was American philosopher, Josiah Royce (1855-1916)who first used the term beloved community to refer to the aim of organized religion on earth. If the creation of the beloved community is our goal, then our task is to invent and apply those arts which shall win all over to unity, overcoming our separateness by the gracious love, not of mere individuality but of communities – the Spirit of Love incarnate in human fellowship. The core of our faith and the purpose of our lives is the Beloved Community, a community in which individuals do not seek private and selfish security for their souls, but join in a new adventure, a spontaneous fellowship of dedicated men and women seeking a new world.

 

September 18, 2011
Rev. Gary James
Finding a Wisdom for Dispelling the Plague of Anger that Consumes Us and Our World
9:15 and 11:15 am
Anger plagues all of us on a personal, national, and international level.  Yet there are people who have faced circumstances far worse than those many of us have faced and do not succumb to anger, or rage, or seek revenge.  How do they do it?  All of us can learn to live with greater tolerance, love and forgiveness.  Learning to handle our anger is one of the great challenges in living an emotionally intelligent life.  If you carry grudges, and criticize people .  Have trouble sleeping?  Fly into fits of rage.  This sermon is for you.  We will study a Buddhist approach to bringing harmony to yourself and your relationships.

 

September 11, 2011
Rev. Gary James
Welcoming Sunday - Let It Be a Dance (Intergenerational)
9:15 and 11:15 am
In music, song and liturgical dance we will celebrate our gathering together as a sacred community for the beginning of a new church year. 
We clasp the hands of those that go before us, and the hands of those who come after us.  We enter the little circle of each other’s arms and the larger circle of lovers, whose hands are joined in a dance.  And the larger circle of all creatures, passing in and out of life, who move also in a dance, to a music so subtle and vast that no ear hears it except in fragments.  So writes Kentucky poet, Wendell Berry. 

As is found in ancient cultures around the world, we need to approach and respond to life with the attitude of a dancer.  Willing to connect and interact with all the music and rhythms we encounter, and engaging as full participants.  We UUs tend get lost in mental concepts and word constructs and lose touch with the rhythmic singing in the blood.  Our ancestors viewed dance as sacred.  The protective whirl of dance keeps opposing forces in dynamic balance, a sacred partnership of give and take, leader and led. And then, following the service, we can dance out into the sunshine and join in the festivities of our all church picnic.

 

September 4, 2011
Aidan McCormack
Promises, Promises
10:00 am
Join frequent guest to the Rock, and Director of Youth Ministry, Aidan McCormack, as he explores covenant and how we can live into our deepest loyalties and loves with one another. How could something as dry as covenant and polity bring, and maybe most importantly, retain young people within Unitarian Universalism?

 

August 28, 2011
Ashley Horan
Expecting Abundance
10:00 am
Our culture encourages us to believe in scarcity, fearing that there are not enough resources, time, money, jobs or love to go around.  As a result, we see each other as the competition, and operate defensively and independently.  What would life be like if, instead, we acted like we believed in an abundant universe that contained enough to meet every person's needs?

Ashley Horan, a lifelong Unitarian Universalist, is entering her final year at Seminary at Meadville Lombard Theological School.  Ashley is grateful to be back in Chicago after a fabulous "year abroad" in California, where she served last year as the Intern & Campus Minister at the UU Church of Davis, CA.

 

August 21, 2011
Bill Hansen
There's a Reason for the World You and I
10:00 am
It is often said that people come into our lives for a reason. What are these reasons; why are they important, and why do we need to embrace these challenges and opportunities? Our relationships with others play a significant role in our evolution as spiritual beings. Through song, stories, and personal reflections, we will explore the spiritual nature of our human transactions and come to a deeper understanding and appreciation of life's full meaning. Bill Hansen is a social worker and currently serves as Vice President of Program Operations for Chicago Youth Centers. He has been a member of NSUC since 1991, along with his wife Polly and two children, Ian and Kelsey.

 

August 14, 2011
Guns, Grief & Grace
Janet Fitch
10:00 am
Janet Fitch creates films that engage diverse communities to expand critical thinking on complex societal problems. Her award winning documentary series, Guns, Grief & Grace in America, reframes the current debate on gun violence to a non-polarized public health focus on prevention. Urban, suburban, small town and rural lenses broaden collective thinking as they explore suicide, homicide, domestic violence, mass and accidental shootings ‐ to highlight the need for prevention strategies.

 

August 7, 2011
Balancing the Moral Budget
The Reverend Jean Darling
10:00 am
Every budget is a moral document, said Jim Wallis of Sojourners (among many others!). If we value education, self development, science and art, and caring for those who are most vulnerable, and want these values to be expressed in public policy, we're going to need to do a lot more organizing ‐ and a lot more praying. Rev. Jean Siegfried Darling, a life‐long UU, serves the Peoples Church of Chicago in Uptown.

 

July 31, 2011 
Queer and Undocumented—Stories of Courage and Hope
Tania Unzueta and Ireri Carrasco
10:00 am
“Coming out” for most people, means acknowledging their homosexuality. What if you had to decide about coming out, not just about that but also about being undocumented? Ourguests, Tania Unzueta and Ireri Carrasco, both members of the Chicago Immigrant Youth Justice League, will share their personal journeys and, more importantly, why we as UUs should care and support their work.

 

July 24, 2011
Laughter as Ministry
Karen Topham
10:00 am
Mark Twain famously said, "Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand." In difficult times such as these, when many of us are facing life‐altering circumstances and worries about the future, laughter does not come easy. But it has a healing power that we seldom recognize. It is the one perfect, unstoppable weapon in the arsenal against despair. Through jokes and music and joy‐filled moments, Karen will bring her Ministry of Laughter to NSUC. Karen Topham has been a member at NSUC since 1999 and has served in many capacities including Council Chair.

 

July 17, 2011 
Dangerous Power of Addiction, Loving Power of Spirituality
John Corso
10:00 am
This presentation will portray addiction as an inability to refrain from any behavior that has negative consequences, not just drugs and alcohol. AA’s 12 Step Model, which focuses on spirituality, stresses the importance of a spiritual community structure and invokes the help of a higher power in keeping addiction at bay. John Corso is a LCSW, who works in a psychiatric nursing home.

 

 July 10, 2011 
Promises, Promises
Aidan McCormack
10:00 am
Join frequent guest to the Rock, and Director of Youth Ministry, Aidan McCormack, as he explores covenant and how we can live into our deepest loyalties and loves with one another. How could something as dry as covenant and polity bring, and maybe most importantly, retain young people within Unitarian Universalism?

 

July 3, 2011 
America, My Adopted Country
Marguerite McClelland
10:00 am
As a first generation immigrant, NSUC member Marguerite McClelland will share her thoughts and observations about her adopted country, and why you should be proud of it. Marguerite serves on the Worship Arts Committee and writes a column for NSUC’s Environmental Task Force.

 

June 26, 2011 
Living the Seven Principles: guide for a Spiritual Life
Polly Hansen
10:00 am
Our current U.U. Seven Principles, adopted in 1984, are founded on ancient wisdom and teachings from other religions, as well as insights from our own U.U. point of view. How much do they impact our lives? How often do you think about them? Can you even name them all? Delve into the deep meaning of each principle and you may find a wealth of untapped wisdom and profound spiritual guidance. Polly Hansen, our music coordinator for summer services, has been a member of NSUC since 1991. This is her fifth sermon at the rock.

 

June 19, 2011 
Lost in Translation
Reverend Matthew Doyle
10:00 am
Have you ever thought you knew what someone meant, but you didn't? Even when speaking the same language, our words can mean very different things to each of us. Over the last 15 years, Rev. Doyle's work on anti‐racism, GLBT equality, reproductive rights, and ministry in general, Rev. Doyle has found that sometimes we get lost in translation. Rev. Doyle's coalition work for justice and understanding depends on learning to listen with more depth and compassion. So too, do our personal lives and our growing identity as an interfaith religious home. Rev. Matthew Doyle has been the senior minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Rockford, since 2008.

June 12, 2011
WWMD? What Would Muhammed Do?
Rev. Dick Weston-Jones
10:00 am
Lots of people speak for and against him, but most don't understand him. This is an appreciation of the man, one of the most significant religious leaders of our heritage. Rev. Weston-Jones will also speak about American Muslims, the relationship of their heritage to our own, how difficult their religious task is today and our role as Unitarian Universalists in that. A UU minister for 47 years, Dick is Minister Emeritus of the UU Church of Ventura, California. He served NSUC from 1981-88. He also directed WhaleCoast Alaska, a program co-sponsored by five UU fellowships in Alaska taking UU's from "Outside" (meaning the lower 48 states) to explore Alaska between 1994 and 2007 and founded "La Vida Mexicana," an intercultural program apprenticing UU's to Mexican villagers in the 1970's. Dick now lives in Chapel Hill where he built his home in 1994. 
 
June 5, 2011
Finding the Courage to Live Life Deep and Live It Whole
Rev. Gary James
10:00 am
Courage is a powerful word.  The original use of the word courage means to stand by one’s core.  Courage also means heart.  I believe if we learn how to find our way to our core, to stand by our core, and then sustain the practice of living from our core we will be able to face whatever life has to offer.  This is also a fundamental teaching of many wisdom traditions.  My last sermon before departing for the summer will address the question:  What are the ways of living and being that makes bravery possible, not just as an event, but as an approach to life, as a way of life? 

May 29, 2011
Earth Day Service
Memorial Day Worship Service
10:00 am
We are privileged to have the musicians of Voices of Veterans again providing their music for this special service. The service will celebrate and honor veterans and their families from all services and conflicts since WWII. You are encouraged to attend and bring friends who are veterans or families of veterans as well as any young men and women who have served or are presently serving in this time of conflict. It will be a time to be together to recognize those whose service to our country must not be forgotten.

May 22, 2011
Affirmation Sunday
9:15 and 11:15 am
This Sunday is our annual Affirmation Sunday, when we celebrate our 8th grade Affirmation students as they complete their coming of age program. Worship will include the presentation of the Statements of Faith, which our Affirmants have written to reflect their understanding of faith, belief and spirituality. Affirmation Sunday will also feature performances by both the Junior and Adult Choirs.

May 15, 2011
All You Need is Love
Rev. Gary James
9:15 and 11:15 am
All You Need is Love will celebrate the music of the Beatles in performance and in exploration of the evolution of love. Music of the Beatles will be performed by some of our great NSUC musicians!

May 8, 2011
Mother's Day
Rev. Gary James
9:15 and 11:15 am

May 1, 2011
Art Fair Service
Art's Grace
Rev. Patrick Cott
10:00 am

April 24, 2011
Easter Sunday
Rev. Gary James
9:15 and 11:15 am

April 17, 2011
Earth Day Service
Guardians of the Waters
Affirmants Aaron Apack, Lia Rose Frykman, Nathan Goldin, Ryan Goldsher, and Alyson Merkle
9:15 and 11:15 am  
This year's Earth Day service is particularly poignant, as we recognize the one year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil well spill in the Gulf of Mexico, as we hear of radioactive cooling water from the Fukushima nuclear reactors being released into the waters off Japan's coast, and as the Clean Water and Clean Air Acts come under increasing legislative attacks.  This service is an Affirmation Project - it has been created and will be presented by five of our 8th-grade affirmants, who are using their talents for music and speaking to serve the Earth through worship.  They remind us that "in all our actions, we must be mindful of water's preciousness, be grateful for it, and take care of it, because every living being is sustained by Water, our Sacred Well.  We are Guardians of the Sacred Well." 

April 10, 2011
Rev. Gary James
Music Sunday
9:15 and 11:15 am
We will celebrate Music Sunday in both services. This year the NSUC Choir will be joined by a Woodwind Quintet performing works by Georg Phillip Telemann, W.A. Mozart, Leonard Bernstein, Eleanor Daley, James Mulholland, William Hawley and Wayland Rogers. The service will be dedicated to three long-time choir members who died this past year: Eileen Curns, Anne Barrows and Judy Shad.

April 3, 2011
Rev. Gary James
Devi 2000 Hindu-Vedic Chant
9:15 and 11:15 am
Invite your friends to church, especially if they enjoy chanting to beautiful music.  Debi Buzil and her group DEVI 2000 are returning to NSUC next week.  Debi and her Hindu-Vedic chant group will help us explore the experience of chanting in what is called Bhakti or devotional Hinduism.  Chant is found in all the religions of the world, but of all the traditions there is none in which chant plays a more central role than the Hindu/Vedic culture. The importance of chant is firmly rooted in their belief that sound vibration is the basic nature of the universe - sound is God.  According to the sacred Hindu scriptures, the Upanishads, the cosmos was created out of the primal ethers through the uttering of the primal sound embodied in the sacred syllable “OM.” The whole universe comes out of a single vibration.  Some of us call it the “Big Bang Theory,” some call it “OM.”   Maybe it’s the same thing.  By chanting - we return to our primal source! Every one of us desires peace, love, wholeness, and a connection to something larger than ourselves.  This longing, whether or not we ever think of it as spiritual, lives in each one of our hearts.  Chant offers us a real and immediate opportunity to taste something of this peace, to feel something of this love, and to experience a connection to each other and to Spirit.

March 27, 2011
Rev. Gary James
Beyond Spirituality: Finding a Religious Community and a Deeper Faith
9:15 and 11:15 am

March 20, 2011
Rev. Gary James
Moving Beyond Revenge: Eliminating the Death Penalty
9:15 and 11:15 am

March 13, 2011
High School Youth Group
Shades of Gray
9:15 and 11:15 am
During the school year, the NSUC Youth Group meets each week to discuss and share ideas and concerns that high-school aged people see each day. The worship service, Shades of Gray, is their opportunity to share their observations, talents, and concerns with the entire congregation.  The youth wrote or found readings and music that is not simply “black or white”, but rather reflects how to deal with the “Shades of Gray” of life. Shades of Gray was a topic that was relevant to the youth as they talked about ideas of innocence, prejudice, ignorance and being unique in a world that sometimes feels too black and white. Their reflections address many of these complexities and some of the complexities go unspoken.

 

March 6, 2011
Rev. Gary James
Drinking the Water of Life and Keeping the Flow Clear
9:15 and 11:15 am
“It is a curious thing.  The river runs free though it is contained by the banks that it carves, the way our love runs free, contained by the things that we love.”  (Mark Nepo)  I will be exploring the courage it takes to live life deep and live it whole.  The sacred core of selfhood is like a spring and the flowing waters are the water of life. It seems the place to start is always within the confusion of our own days, where we find ourselves subject to both the press and comfort of the patterns that confine us.  Often we can feel the Spirit underneath our habits.  And deep down, we know that though the ways we have chosen have lost their freshness, our blood is fine.  It’s the way we clog it up that sneaks up on us.  Once we are awake, the struggle is often whether we live in the world of things while glimpsing the light of Spirit, or in the light of Spirit while moving through the world of things.  It is practice just to be aware of which is driving us.

February 27, 2011
Aidan McCormick
Love in Public
9:15 and 11:15 am
Scholar and Activist, Cornell West is famous for saying that "Justice is what love looks like in public." Join our Director of Youth Ministry Aidan McCormack as he explores how simple acts of service, love and compassion can indeed be acts of justice. He will be looking at this topic through the lense of his current Chaplain Residency and his work with the youth of NSUC. Aidan McCormack relishes the opportunity to preach and serve at NSUC. After being a frequent worship leader he jumped at the opportunity to work with the youth in his current role as Director of Youth Ministry. Currently, Aidan is completing his studies at Meadville Lombard Theological School and will graduate in May. He is also a Resident Chaplain at Elmhurst Memorial Hospital concentrating in Hospice Chaplaincy. In his limited free time Aidan enjoys attending concerts, the theater and living in the city.

February 20, 2011
Anas Osman
Understanding Islam: One God, Many Names
9:15 and 11:15 am
Brief Biography
Anas the co-founder and long time board member of the Nawawi Foundation, a Chicago-based non-profit educational institution. The Nawawi Foundation was born out of a need to provide relevant, meaningful Islamic teachings to America’s growing first and second generation Muslims – teachings firmly rooted in authentic scholarship and taught in a way that is dynamic and applicable to the modern world. He has been named a "Muslim Leader of Tomorrow" and has spoken at the MLT conferences in New York and Denmark, the latter being sponsored by the World Economic Forum. A believer in not only studying but also experiencing history, he has planned and led in 9 international cultural immersion travel tours to China, Turkey, Spain, Syria/Jordan, Malaysia/Indonesia/Singapore, Morocco, Egypt, and Uzbekistan on behalf of the Foundation.
Professionally, Anas has worked as a consultant, internet entrepreneur, financial services executive, and currently for Google leading Sales Operations and Strategy for the Americas. Last year, he was recently named to the prestigious “40 under 40” list published by Crain’s Chicago Business and has been a keynote speaker at numerous financial services conferences.  He earned his M.B.A. the Kellogg School of Management and his B.A. in Economics from Northwestern University and has had the opportunity to study traditional Islamic studies abroad over many trips and summers. He resides with his wife and children in the Chicagoland area.
Discussion Brief
The Prophet Muhammad said, “None of you truly believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.” Imam Nawawi commented in his compilation of 40 Prophetic Traditions that, “that the brotherhood referenced in the tradition is that of humanity.” The Nawawi Foundation is named after this classical Islamic scholar, who lived and died in the 13th century. 
Today's discussion will present the basic tenants of Islam as understood by Muslims traditionally. I will aim to demystify much of what is presented in the name of Islam's 1.3 billion believers and to emphasize the mystical aspects of the faith. Islam, while known for its strong similarities to Talmudic laws and legal theory, emphasizes first and foremost the belief in One God. Emanating from this powerful belief are enlightening spiritual possibilities and moral consequences modeled by all of God's Prophets that should inform and guide every believer. A Muslim is therefore one who chooses faith and then struggles to submit her or his own worldly desires/passions to a higher moral standard, constantly refining one's worship and working to elevate one's spiritual state as she or he seeks a "spiritual certainty of belief in the One God". 

February 13, 2011
Christina Leone
When 1+1=3
9:15 and 11:15 am
We all know that one plus one equals two, but in religious community, it can equal three! Join us for a worship service exploring the covenant we make with one another, and with love, and how in our spiritual and community lives, we are more than the sum of our parts.
Ms. Christina Leone is a fourth-year student at Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago. She grew up outside Fort Worth, Texas, and earned her master's degree in clinical psychology from the University of Memphis. She enjoyed a year-long congregational internship in Annapolis, Maryland last year, and is pleased to be returning to the UU Church of Annapolis in the fall as their Minister of Lifespan Faith Development. Christina has no children but she is the proud mommy of a chihuahua/dachshund mutt named Zoe and the proud aunt of 3-month-old Ethan. She will graduate from seminary in May and will be ordained to the Unitarian Universalist ministry in October. She is excited to lead worship at the North Shore Unitarian Universalist Church and is looking forward to meeting many of you.

February 6, 2011
Jim Parrish
I-Thou-We: A Recruits Dilemma
9:15 and 11:15 am
Being a Liberal Religionist is not an easy thing. Exploring the edge of theology can sometimes make our relationships with those who do not understand us kind of edgy. But we tend to navigate the world just fine, and we can retreat to our home or church if necessary. But try this tight-rope while in boot camp for the Navy. Try exploring who you might be religiously in a place that requires constant attention to discipline, and conformity on many levels. The young women and men who come to the Unitarian Universalist service every Sunday at the Great Lakes Naval Recruit Training Base are religious seekers, folks who will remember UU as the religion that supported them during their training to join the Navy. We will explore a typical service provided for these fine young adults, a service that explains UU, while giving them spiritual support in their difficult endeavors.
Jim Parrish is a member of the Rockford UU Church who quit his engineering job in 2007 and began UU seminary at Meadville Lombard that same year. He is in the last year of a four year Masters of Divinity program. Last year he was the intern minister for the Universalist Unitarian Church of Peoria and then an intern chaplain for a hospice in Chicago this summer. Jim is coordinating volunteer service leaders for the Great Lakes Naval Recruit Training Command UU Chapel Services this year. Jim is looking forward to completing his academic coursework at Meadville, and seeing the UUA's Ministerial Fellowship Committee later this year. Jim is happy to share a service with the folks of North Shore Unitarian!

 

January 30, 2011
Rev. Gary James
9:15 and 11:15 am

January 23, 2011
Rev. Gary James
Healing
9:15 and 11:15 am
I am married to a healer.  My wife Julie is a naturopathic physician specializing oncology.  My father-in-law is a healer, a retired general practitioner and surgeon.  Two of my brothers-in-law are healers,  an internist and an anesthesiologist.  My brother and his wife are naturopathic healers in Flagstaff, Arizona.  My brother Mark specializes in sports medicine, healing those who  come to Flagstaff for high altitude training.  I confess, I don’t understand healing.  There is much about healing that is a mystery.  I know that faith, hope, laughter and forgiveness are a factor in one’s recovery.  And often times my role is addressing spiritual healing in the absence of a cure.

 

January 16, 2011
Rev. Gary James, Guest Conductor and Organist Dr. Charles Clency
Martin Luther King Sunday
9:15 and 11:15 am
Dr. Clency will play the organ and he and Wayland Rogers will conduct our choir in the performance of Stand By Me, City Called Heaven, Total Praise, Like a Mighty Stream, Let Everything, and He’s the Lilly of the Valley.  Dr. Clency will  speak about the history of the spiritual as a musical and religious expression and Rev. Gary James offer his own thoughts and reflections  on MLK and his enduring spirit.

 

January 9, 2011
Rev. Gary James
Resolution
9:15 and 11:15 am
I discovered more than ten different definitions of the word resolution.  The word resolution is used in music, the science of optics, mathematics, all of which shed light on its meaning.  But the definition of resolution that makes most sense to me as we begin 2011is courage, fortitude, or strength.  To act resolutely is to act forthrightly, boldly with deliberate and whole-hearted action.  But what is the ground of our resolve that gives us the courage to change and grow?  Come and learn the answer.

 

January 2, 2011
Rev. Gary James
10:00 am

 

December 26, 2010
Marguerite McClelland
Meeting the Keeper of the Gate
9:15 and 11:15 am

 

Marguerite McClelland is the guest speaker this week, discussing Meeting the Keeper of the Gate, a fantasy about the meaning of life. As you plan your New Year’s resolutions, what is it that really matters?

 

December 24, 2010
Rev. Gary James
Christmas Eve Services
5:00 and 8:00 pm
All are welcome at NSUC for the Christmas Eve Services. At 5:00, the family service will feature the Children's Choir and Multigenerational Orchestra. The 8:00 service will have music by Wayland Rogers, and the adult choirs and orchestra. Both services are open to all.

 

December 19, 2010
Rev. Gary James
The Courage of Scrooge
9:15 and 11:15 am
The important thing in Charles Dickens’, A Christmas Carol, is not that Tiny Tim gets a goose but that the Christmas season melts the heart of Scrooge.  Do we have the courage to melt the Scrooge-of-the-cold-heart in all of us?

 

December 5, 2010
Rev. Gary James
Building a House for Hope
9:15 and 11:15 am
"Hope rises.  It rises from the heart of life, here and now, beating with joy and sorrow.  Hope longs.  It longs for good to be affirmed, for justice and love to prevail, for suffering to be alleviated, and for life to flourish in peace.  But to thrive, hope requires a home, a sustaining structure of community, meaning, and ritual.  Only with such a habitation can hope manifest the spiritual stamina it needs to confront evil, endure through trouble, and hold fast to that which is good."
On this 2^nd Sunday in Advent the Sunday’s sermon will be a reflection on the recent work of John Buehrens and Rebecca Parker, A House for Hope : The Promise  of Progressive Religion for the Twenty-first Century, in which they argue that the impact of liberal religion is richer and more far reaching than we know – a force for good that has supported two centuries  of American social progress, from the abolition of slavery and the securing of women’s rights to the present day struggles for marriage equality, ecological responsibility, global peace.  In order to sustain our spirits and advance positive social change progressive people need to reclaim the transforming power of our religious heritage.

 

November 28, 2010
Rev. Elizabeth A. Harding
Ethical Grace
9:15 and 11:15 am
In their book Saving Paradise, Rita N. Brock and Rebecca Parker talk about the historical background of the Christian concept of paradise. They come up with an idea that has great meaning for us as Unitarian Universalists, “Ethical Grace.” What does it mean to be ethically gracious? What does it mean as far as behavior? What if we turn it around and think about our impact on the earth? These and other questions may come forward as we share worship this Sunday.
The Rev. Elizabeth A. Harding completed a ministry with Prairie Circle Unitarian Universalist Congregation as of August 1, 2010. Prior to her service there, she worked as a hospital chaplain. Rev. Harding grew up Unitarian Universalist, attending the Second Unitarian Church of Chicago, Illinois, and graduated from Meadville Lombard Theological School in 2006. She also holds a degree from the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration.

 

November 21, 2010
Rev. Gary James
Harvest Communion: Gratitude is the Beginning of Religion
9:15 and 11:15 am
A multigenerational service for all ages in which we remember our dependence upon one another, and our dependence upon that larger life in whose embrace all of us are sustained. We hunger and so we eat.  We thirst and so we drink.  Our hunger and thirst are signs of our aliveness, our beingness in the larger miracle of creation.  We celebrate the miracle of life together through our Harvest Communion. But there is another hunger in us that is deeper than that, and just as real.  There is an emptiness in us, a lostness and a longing, a need as basic and real as physical hunger.  It is the soul’s need, our hunger for the bread of the spirit.
With wonderful music, including both our adult and children’s choir, we will sing praises of gratitude for all that we receive that we might live.  Come join us, and may your hungry souls be filled with gratitude and joy.

 

November 14, 2010
Rev. Gary James
Exploring Islam
9:15 and 11:15 am
Every year, the Rev. Gary James auctions off sermon topics to the congregation at our Heart and Hand event. This Sunday, we will be hearing a sermon on Islam, puchased by John Burrell, who generously took advantage of Rev. Gary’s offer last year.  This year’s Heart and Hand will be held on November 20th. We hope to see you there!

 

November 7, 2010
Rev. Gary James
All Souls Day
9:15 and 11:15 am
In this special candle lighting service we will remember all those in the church family, as well as friends and loved ones, who died in the past year.  All Souls Sunday speaks to us of the transience of life, of the lives that have gone before us and of our own lives.  It reminds us that we may live our lives, but what our lives mean is not wholly ours to determine.  Their meaning lies with those who come after us.  What is permanent is the pattern linking memory and hope from generation to generation.  Whether our dead have died in vain rests in our hands, as the meaning of our lives will some day rest in the hands of those who come after us.  In this sense, the living – you and I for the time being – are the caretakers of the souls of the dead.

 

 

 

October 31, 2010
Rev. Gary James
March of the Goblins / Dancing with our Darkness
9:15 and 11:15 am
Each and every one of us carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in our conscious life, the blacker and denser it is.  Throughout every aspect of our lives it forms an unconscious snag, thwarting our most well-meant intentions.   This darkness we carry with us is all that we are afraid of, all that we don’t want to see – fear, anger, sex, grief, death the unknown.  We all have a shadow.  Or does our shadow have us?  Learning to recover the darkness and to befriend it is to reclaim our deep love of life.  Any genuine religious insight and wisdom requires that we slow the pace of our lives, listen to the body’s cues, and allow ourselves time to be alone in order to digest the cryptic messages from this dark and  hidden world . . . and then we might hear the soul music, embrace our shadows and joyfully begin to dance with our darkness. Everyone is invited to come to church in costume.  Masks will be available.

 

October 24, 2010
Rev. Gary James
Learning To Fall
9:15 and 11:15 am
We all suffer the fall from grace into the scarred years of conscious life, falling into the knowledge of pain, grief and loss.  We have no choice but to fall, but we can learn to do so with grace and style.  Our losses have entailed moving away from the body and being of our mother and gradually becoming a separate self.  As we grew older we  had to face the limitations on our power and potential.  We have had to relinquish our dreams of ideal relationships for the human realities of imperfect connections.  In the second half of life  we face our final losing, leaving and letting go.  Our road to human and spiritual development is paved with renunciation.  Central to understanding our lives is understanding how to deal with loss.

 

October 17, 2010
Guest Speaker Laura Emerson
What Has Your Religion Done for You Lately?
9:15 and 11:15 am
Do you sometimes  feel like Gulliver, trapped by the ropes of hundreds of Liliputians in your life?  Can a religious outlook loosen them?  Join us as we broach the subjects of feeling overwhelmed, overjoyed, angry or feeling nothing at all.  What has your religion done for you lately during a trial or tribulation? Can it do more?  Can you? Laura Emerson grew up on the North Shore but now lives half the year in Houston TX and half the year in a log cabin in Alaska.  She was a religion and classics major at Duke U and speaks frequently at UU churches around the country.  We are glad to have her visit us again.

 

October 10, 2010
Rev. Gary James
Deep Calleth Unto Deep
9:15 and 11:15 am
Lenny Bruce, the American comedian, once quipped, Every day, people are straying away from the church and gong back to God. There is something in all of us that intuits and seeks after a divine Presence which already is seeking us.  Some of us choose to call this the Spirit of Life or the Creative Spirit.  Creation’s great beauty and astounding mysteries speak to the intellect, but there is also a Presence pervading and communicating through it that addresses us at a more profound level once we are sensitive to it.  My sermon will address the challenging question: What response does this divine Presence require of us?

October 3, 2010
Rev. Gary James
Association Sunday: Celebrating 50 Years and the Future of Our Faith
9:15 and 11:15 am
We celebrate this year the fiftieth anniversary of the consolidation of the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America.  We will honor the past , recognizing the gifts of both traditions that together create a balance of both head and heart, social action and spirituality, individual freedom and community responsibility.  Association Sunday helps us in strengthening the bonds of common purpose among all our congregations in America so that we can make Unitarian Universalism a stronger voice of liberal religious values in the world.  Now is the time for NSUC to join with the other congregations in our association to grow stronger and more effective because we are needed to help heal the wounded world.

September 26, 2010
Rev. Gary James
Setting a Higher Moral Standard for Business Leaders in America
9:15 and 11:15 am
In the wake of the financial crisis, the Madoff scandal, post-Enron, and other headlines, business leaders have been vilified.  Many seem not to care about anything beyond their own private interests.   Others recognize the need for a dramatic change in how business leaders conduct themselves.  A new  generation  of leaders are part of a worldwide movement who are dedicating themselves to the well being of society as well as the bottom line, promising to conduct themselves with honesty and integrity.  Many are pledging the MBA Oath just as medical students swear the Hippocratic oath before they can practice.   Is this a passing fancy or simply a defensive reaction to the current business environment or is there an important discussion beginning  about doing the right thing in business.

September 19,2010
Rev. Gary James
Yom Kippur - The Day of At-one-ment - The Reconciliation of All that is Separated - The Naked Heart Revealed to the Hiding Self
9:15 and 11:15 am
On Yom Kippur the shofar blasts - the blowing of the ram's horn - are sounds without speech.  Speech represents the division of sound into varied and separate movements of the mouth.  But sound itself is one, united, cleaving to its source.  On this day the life force cleaves to its source, as it was before differentiation or division.  And, we too, seek to attach ourselves to that inner flow of life.  The sound of the ram's horn takes us to that moment of outcry from deep within, to a place prior to the division of our heart's cry into the many words of prayer.  The shofar blast splits time in two, separating past and future.  The old year fades and the new one begins.  The old is gone forever and we cannot know what lies ahead.  The sound of the shofar is a wordless scream of terror and grief, as well as a shout for joy at the beauty of life and the miracle of creation in this one life we have to live.  This is the day when love and truth shall meet.

September 12, 2010
Rev. Gary James
Intergenerational Service
Welcoming Sunday: The Journey Begins
9:15 and 11:15 am
What Can We Offer Our Children (and Ourselves) that is Truly Lasting? If we provide our children with the language of religion - with mere descriptions of spirituality - without offering to live it along with them, then what we are doing is something like providing a mouth watering description of chocolate ice cream and then holding out an empty cone.  Learning about religious symbols, rather than experiencing the spiritual reality they imperfectly describe, will lead our children to experience those religious symbols as hollow and meaningless upon reaching adulthood.  There is a difference between nurturing spiritual growth and passing on a religion or teaching them about all the religions of the world.  Let's discover how to attend the divine presence in all or lives.  Through our children's eyes we have the opportunity to become visionaries and see the world as a new creation.

September 5, 2010
Marguerite McClelland
Cultural (R)Evolution?
We seem to be going through a period of great upheaval and danger; many of us are discouraged by the relentless current of bad news. But instead of the omens of doomsday, might this be the turbulence of a sea change of old values going out and new ones coming in? In his new book Thriving in the Crosscurrent, Jim Kenney of Common Ground suggests that we are on the brink of a global transformation, setting the stage for a more just and sustainable world. NSUC member Marguerite McClelland serves on the Worship Arts Committee.