Sermon Topics

"How do you decide on a topic each week for your sermon?" 

I try to vary the topics I pick. I look at newspapers to see what stories are popular. I looked at the calendar for holidays and anniversaries that fall on or near a Sunday. I look at the past sermons of colleagues for ideas.

About thirty years ago I was serving as a minister in Bethesda, Maryland and we invited the Rev. Dr. Patrick T. O'Neill, to speak at our annual Stewardship Sunday Service. "Treasured Dishes, Fragile Cups" was his title. Patrick’s words touched and moved me in a very profound way. I still think about the story in the sermon. With Patrick’s permission, and with some rewriting of my own, I will share his message on our Stewardship Sunday, March 2. 

The next Saturday, March 8, is International Woman’s Day. I remembered attending a wonderful poetry reading a few years ago by the Canadian writer Margaret Atwood at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Also, I remember seeing two autograph copies of a poetry book by Atwood at Peregrine Book Company on North Cortez Street in Prescott. I got excited about the thought of preparing a biographical sermon about Atwood for March 9. (This is part of the way I decide on a topic each week. I look for something that excites me.) 

A few years ago I spent a day with the minister of the Dublin Unitarian Church, learning about the story of that congregation. St. Patrick's Day is Monday, March 17. I think it is a very, very interesting story, but I wonder; are Prescott Unitarian Universalists interested in the history of a Unitarian Church that is 5,000 miles away? We will see on March 16. (Announcing sermon topics ahead of time is risky. Some of my colleagues refuse to do so.) 

The next week we have a guest speaker, but there are five weeks in March. For March 30 I am thinking about Lent, which started Wednesday, March 5, and ends on Thursday, April 17. Lent is a 40-day period of self-improvement through self-denial. Talking about Lent offers opportunities for humor. But seriously, do liberal religious people practice self-denial? (This feels even riskier than talking about Irish Unitarians.) 

Of course, events can make it necessary to change a sermon topic. Sunday morning August 31, 1997, all the parish clergy in the United Kingdom woke to the news about the death of Princess Diana. They had a few minutes to toss out what they had planned and prepare words to minister to their shocked congregations. I pray that nothing like that happens, but I know it can. Therefore, the topics above are just tentative plans. Life will unfold and I will respond as best I can.  

Writing Sermons

My first year of seminary was 1974-75 and my first sermon was in February 1975, fifty years ago, at the UU church in Hayward, California. I was twenty-four. It was not a very good sermon. I still work each week to prepare for a Sunday service, knowing my limits. I think of T.S. Eliot who wrote in one of his poems,

Words strain,

Crack and sometimes break, under the burden,

Under the tension, slip, slide, perish,

Decay with imprecision, will not stay in place,

Will not stay still.

At the end of fifty years of writing sermons, I give thanks for being here in Arizona. As I visit places in Prescott that I visited as a child, I think of other words from Eliot.

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

It is good to be with you.

A New Years Prayer

I like this New Years Prayer by Rev. Sylvia Howe.

We gather with part of us looking backward

     and part of us looking forward.

We gather on the edge of the New Year

     Saddened by our losses,

     Cherishing our joys,                

     Aware of our failures,

     Mindful of days gone by.

We gather on the cusp of this New Year

     Eager to begin anew,

     Hopeful for what lies ahead,

     Promising to make changes,

     Anticipating tomorrows and tomorrows.

Knowing that life includes both good and bad, both endings and beginnings.