Transitioning from the gifts of November’s focus on cultivating gratitude, to December’s theme of choosing hope, we draw on the tradition of Advent (meaning “arrival”), a season of anticipation, reflection, and preparation in various Christian traditions, to check in with our own personal and collective anticipations. What arrivals are you awaiting?

One year out from the 2024 presidential election, many of us feel the weight and the worry of the unmaking of so much of what evidenced or supported, if often imperfectly, our values in the life of the nation. We like to say and believe that disintegration, though painful, can open up rare space for something powerfully new. Are we there yet?

Rev. Kevin Tarsa

Thich Nhat Hanh stated: “To look deeply into the suffering of those who have caused us to suffer is a miraculous gift.” Gift?

Rev. Kevin Tarsa with Gail Johnson Vaughan, Worship Associate

Both empathy and compassion begin as inside jobs, empathy being our feeling of what someone else is feeling, and compassion being the action we take in response to those feelings. This Sunday, we cultivate our self-compassion, powerful medicine for good within and without, and we notice some of what gets in the way.

Rev. Kevin Tarsa with Gail Johnson Vaughan, Worship Associate

Many of us were taught to be cautious of strangers. As we go about our day, we usually interact with family, friends and coworkers. These relationships can help us feel cared for and connected. But what if there’s a whole category of people in our lives whose impact is overlooked? What if these interactions hold a key for current times?

Rev. Kevin Tarsa

with Gail Johnson Vaughan, Worship Associate

Erik Walker Wikstrum writes, “Common wisdom holds that people come to church for a sense of belonging, and that getting involved with a committee or task force is a great way to meet people and feel more connected.” But what if we come for an even deeper reason, he asks: “to have our lives transformed.” What if we understood our participation in the life of this community as a key source of spiritual sustenance, and a source of deep joy?

Picking up on the themes of the previous Sunday’s service, we ask more deeply why it matters that UUCM is here, why being part of such a community matters now in particular, and what the upward movement of energy, interest, and number of searchers at our doors is asking of us, teaching us, and gifting us.

It's time to put together all the learning we've done about ourselves and start using it to dig into tough topics. Rev. Kevin took time at a recent service to open the conversation about the conflict in Gaza and our spiritual call to find both clarity and complexity.

Rev. Kevin Tarsa with Sophia McKean, Worship Associate