Rejoice! (A Defense of the Holidays as They Are!)
Gaudete! Rejoice! If you hear me say nothing else this morning, hear my invitation to rejoice this midwinter season. Gaudete! I am rejoicing over something that technically has nothing to do...
View ArticleNo Greater Love (or Not Your Kind of People)
Rev. Josh Pawelek Watch video here. Last month the rock band Garbage released its most recent album entitled “Not Your Kind of People.”[1] The lyrics to the title track seem so relevant to what I want...
View ArticleMiracles Abound
The Rev. Joshua Mason Pawelek “The leaf unfurling in the April air, the newborn child, the loving parents’ care, these constant, common miracles we share. Alleluia!”[1] Words from Don Cohen which he...
View ArticleWhat If? Reflections on the Great Commandment and the Death of Trayvon Martin
Rev. Joshua M. Pawelek This summer we’re exploring the six sources of the Unitarian Universalist living tradition in worship. It’s my task this morning to reflect on the fourth source: “Jewish and...
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In the Waiting Time
Guest Minister: the Rev. Megan Lloyd Joiner The Rev. Megan Lloyd Joiner I am easily hope-impaired. For whatever reason, I am the kind of person who looks at a glass and is tempted to tell you that it...
View ArticleBeautiful December: A Holiday Homily
Rev. Josh Pawelek Earlier we heard Martha Dallas’ Christmas story about the Bicker Family. Martha Dallas is a Unitarian Universalist religious educator in Burlington, VT. The story really gets rollin’...
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On the Art of Being Lost
Rev. Josh Pawelek Photo by Duffy Schade “Not till we are lost, in other words not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves, and realize where we are and the infinite extent of our...
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On Pilgrimage
Rev. Josh Pawelek Scene from the Edmund Pettis Bridge, March 2015 In March of 2015 I travelled to Selma, AL for the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the day—March 7th, 1965—state and local police...
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Christ: A Crisis in the Life of God
Rev. Josh Pawelek Jesus journeys from the Mount of Olives down into Jerusalem. He rides a donkey. Nearly 2,000 years later, the average reader may not pause to contemplate this image—its oddness, its...
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Ministers Column December 2019
Dear Ones: When I explain Unitarian Universalism to people who have no familiarity with our faith, it is predictable that those who have at least some exposure to Christianity will ask some version of...
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