In Good Faith (10-14-18 Sermon)
I have rarely given, sold, or bought something and regretted it. I have given money to people who likely used it to buy drugs, I have sold something to someone who never paid what they owed me for it, and I have bought something I didn’t need or want from someone who asked politely. I have rarely regretted serving a need in another person.
-Rev. Sara Goodman, “In Good Faith”
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
You Never Know (10-08-18 Sermon)
There’s no evidence that’s true; there’s no evidence it isn’t. You never know. To me, faith is right relation to unknowing and to mystery. It’s not the opposite of doubt; it’s the soulmate of doubt. Without doubt, you really don’t need faith. The opposite of doubt is arrogance, and ignorance. Bravado. Hubris. Swagger.
-Rev. Victoria Safford, “You Never Know”
Download 10-07-18-sermon pdf
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Following the Songlines (09-30-18 Sermon)
How do we hold our history and transform it, and from that raw material, shape a new future? How do we hold the primary sources, the facts, redeem them in the present, and from that raw material, mined from the past and transformed into steel, into the durable strong metal of love and hope? How do we invent a new future, endow a new future, make possible a new chapter while our own is yet unfolding? Legacy is a mighty work, a life work, life-giving work. It’s what we do with our lives, what we make of ourselves.
-Rev. Victoria Safford, “Following the Songlines”
Download 09-24-18-sermon .pdf
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
To Begin Again in Love (09-16-18 Sermon)
By definition, most of us humans are a bit of a mess. Most of the time, our transgressions and injuries are small. We forget what we love on a regular basis. We fall down and fall short all the time. We drop our rulers and our rules.
-Rev. Victoria Safford, “To Begin Again in Love”
Download 09-16-18-sermon .pdf
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Return Again (09-09-18 Sermon)
What words could signal “home, ” not only to all of us, but to every visitor, every wedding guest and mourner, and each member of our staff, and the UPS delivery person, Brian the furnace guy, and every solitary seeker who sits down in a pew, every queer or trans or gay person young or old who bravely, quietly slips in and wonders all through the hour if the spoken welcome will be lived in practice when the service stops and coffee time begins?
-Rev. Victoria Safford, “Return Again”
Download 09-09-18-sermon.pdf
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Life’s Longing for Itself (05-13-18 Sermon)
There are almost never guarantees, that the cause will be won, the war averted, that the child will grow up happy and healthy and perfectly safe, or the deliberate smiles that you bring to your co-workers and strangers in stores and in the skyway and the street will ever be noticed, much less have effect. So much in this life is out of our hands, and you do it anyway, and try to do it carefully, reliably, honorably, reverently, and well, which I guess is the trademark of people of faith. We believe all this accumulates.
-Rev. Victoria Safford, “Life’s Longing for Itself”
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Home Economics (05-06-18 Sermon)
I believe the blood in our veins is unanimous, like the rain from which it derives, and we all bear
a common name and that name is Beloved. That name is Worthy.
-Rev. Victoria Safford, “Home Economics”
Download 05-06-18-sermon pdf
Podcast: Play in new window | Download