Those of you who are long in Unitarian tenure-raise your hands! Do you remember how UU ministers used to give, annually or semi-annually, the "Question Box" sermon? This was, and is, a play on the reality that in Unitarians have more questions than answers about religion-and if you can't see a lead up to a Unitarian joke sequence, you are in the wrong place!

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This sermon is a meditation on a quote that ends a piece written by the Revernd David Rankin, which I've quoted before.  It's entitled, "Populartity," Dr. Rankin is attempting to define what an authentic church is, and is not, when he says,
"Our worship is not entertainment,Our congregation is not an audience.
Our music is not a concert performance.
Our preaching is not trivial comfort.
Our theology is not a marketing strategy,
Our counseling is not a promise of prosperity." 

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One of the reasons I so enjoy going through the offices files is not just to see who gave what in pledging say, twenty or fifty years ago, or but justto see what I can find. Like the old Universalist hymn says, "Here My Free Spirit Onward Leads." 

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“Can Anything Good Come From Nazareth?”

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“We entertaine him alwayes like a stranger/ And, as at first, still lodge him in the manger.” But if we celebrate a holy birth this afternoon, isn’t also true that the church ought to be like a manger?

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This is a celebration of life, of song, words, and of light: light of the sun making our very lives possible, of pale, thin light flickering against the broad darkness of winter skies, and the light from the first explosion of an ancient star. This light is descended from the explosion that gave birth to the Universe, the event that caused me, and you. Let us watch for the light spread by the young person who illuminates our first candle in the display this morning!

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“Brothers and sisters,” he’d say, “don’t let your souls burn in the hell of endless buying! The Shopocalypse is right at hand! You can stop it by ‘backing away from the product!’” Changealujah! Reverend Billy, the “Impresario of Shocking Evolution and Holy Hilariousness” is coming to a mall near you, and he’s with us in spirit today to cleanse our souls by restoring our credit card balances! Come, O Savior come!

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It’s been said that “Terrorism is an intolerant reaction to the hypertolerance of our societies.” Did you know that in our history, some of the people we have supported were thought to be terrorists. That begs the question: do you call it terrorism if you believe in the cause? Can peace ever really come from violence?

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There was a time when the unofficial motto of Third Church was “Peace to the shacks! War on the palaces!”—right from the French Revolution. As activists, we’ve fought the Iraq War, and we’re tired. Isn’t true that it’s as Gerry Adams of the IRA says that “making peace, I have found, is much harder than making war”?

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“Open big, have a good comedy act, put in something for children, and keep the show clean.” This is theology according to the Ed SullivanShow. How much do you know or care about Universalism—the faith that wasn’t about erudition, or entertainment, but about how you loved your brother or sister? Is there a future for a church that is no longer?

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