Unfolding Faith: Sermons from Foothills Unitarian

We must release before we can receive. We open the new year with our annual Fire Ceremony—a powerful ritual of letting go. Before the new direction becomes clear, there is always a threshold: a space where the old stories, habits, and burdens must be set down so that something truer can take root. Through fire, reflection, and shared intention, we will name what no longer serves us and create room for what is waiting to emerge. Come ready to loosen your grip, to trust the unknown, and to begin again. If you would like to participate in the ritual element, we recommend you gather the following items before listening:  Small piece of paper  Pen/pencil Bowl of Water  Stone or other heavy object  There will be prompts to write, followed by music. The music is your cue to take the paper you've written on, and put it in the water, symbolically or literally destroying it. 

Between the noise of holidays, pause to listen to that still small voice within. Community Minister and Hospice Chaplain Rev. Roger Butts will guide us into the contemplative practice of listening—listening to our own hearts, to one another, and to the call of the holy. In the quiet few days after Christmas and before the new year, we’ll make space to hear what we might otherwise miss: the wisdom that speaks only when we are still.

Joy is not something we force into being, nor is it a reward waiting on the other side of certainty or peace. Rev. Gretchen reminds us this Holiday Season, that joy comes to us as an invitation, as a gentle summons to pause, to turn our gaze toward what is tender and new, and let ourselves be interrupted by wonder. Adoration is the courage to give our full attention to life as it is unfolding, to kneel before the sacred beauty that appears even in fragile forms. Joy does not deny the darkness, but shines within it—quiet, embodied, and faithful—asking only that we draw near and allow ourselves to be changed.

There is no growth without rest. No healing. No liberation. Rev. Gretchen invites us to rest in the darkness, and reminds us that the light can return. She’ll explore what becomes possible when we stop forcing growth and trust the hidden transformations happening beneath the surface.   In winter, roots strengthen, bodies recover, and the world prepares for beginning again. On this Solstice Sunday, we turn toward the wisdom of the longest night—the sacred invitation to surrender, renew, and let the earth do its quiet work within us. 

What we ache for reveals our values, our wounds, and our hopes for the world. And yet longing carries real risks. It can narrow our vision; distract us from the present; it can try our patience and make us think we have more control than we do. This Sunday, we will explore what it means to practice longing faithfully, and how desire can be our teacher and our guide in the turning.

What are we waiting for—and what are we postponing that’s ours to do now? In a time of so much struggle and uncertainty, how do we honor the real ache for things to get better without slipping into resignation or deferring our own power? How do we discern the difference between the waiting that is wise and the waiting that keeps us from living? Drawing on the ancient idea of a “messianic hope” and the wisdom of kairos—the right time— we will explore the spiritual practice of waiting faithfully, living in the paradox of both patience and urgency.  

Rev. Elaine and Sophia Miller lead a meditation based on a loving-kindness meditation, adapted from the work of Sister Karma Kechog Palmo, a nun in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.   

Heroes can feel out of reach—like the kind of people who have more courage, more clarity, or less to lose. But what if it’s not about being extraordinary? What if the difference is just practice—small, consistent choices that shape who we become and how we show up when it matters most? This week's message is an invitation to stop waiting for the moment and start preparing for it together, drawing our lines, building trust, and learning the kind of courage that doesn’t come from going it alone, but from rising side by side.

We’ve all been there—someone we care about falls down a rabbit hole of “alternative facts.” You try to explain, to reason, to send the article that will finally convince them. But somehow, the more facts you share, the deeper they dig in. So what’s really going on when facts fail? Why do smart, caring people come to believe things that make no sense? And how can connection—rather than correction—bring us back to truth? Join Rev. Gretchen this week, as we explore how belonging shapes belief, and what it means to stay human, curious, and kind in an age of misbelief.

In a world that keeps demanding we either smooth over our differences or cut each other off completely, Rev. Sean's message explores a harder, more honest way forward—where love isn’t control or avoidance, but the daily work of staying rooted in your convictions while making space for others to be fully themselves. What if the tension we’re trying so hard to eliminate is actually where love—and transformation—lives?

In a world where fear often masquerades as wisdom, this message invites you to treat your discomfort not as a red light, but as data—pointing to where love is asking more of you. Rev. Sean draws on personal experience to help differentiate between real threat and personal unease, and choosing to cross the bridge of courageous love—even when it’s hard, even when you’re scared—to have fellowship with those on the other side.

This past Sunday was our cherished annual Service of Remembrance, where we came together to honor loved ones who have passed by bringing their photos or objects into our sacred space as we built a shared altar.  Rev. Elaine asked Foothills Member Karen Wilken to talk about the sudden loss of her son, Oliver, and her journey with grief.

You’ve spent years believing that if you just told the truth clearly enough, people would see it—but now that logic feels broken, and it’s breaking something in you, too. When the old tools stop working, faith invites us to grieve what’s gone and still step forward, learning to speak truth in a way that reshapes the ground we stand on.

We want to believe heaven is already here, on earth. In beauty, and nature; in generosity and creativity; and in human goodness that still surprises us in its abundance. But then....we read the headlines, we feel the heartbreak, and we experience the harm - and all of these ideas feel hollow. So, as Eleanor Shellstrop (from TV's The Good Place) might say....is this the bad place? And if so, how do we live faithfully here - in what Parker Palmer calls the "tragic gap,"  between the world as it is and the world as it could be? These are the questions at the heart of this sermon from Rev. Gretchen.

Life shifts under our feet in ways we didn’t ask for— relationships strain, identities evolve, and structures and expectations that once felt right can start to feel confining.  It’s easy to mistake the pain of breaking open, growing, and becoming as a sign that something is wrong.   This message from Rev. Elaine invites us to discern whether the strain we feel is the cost of becoming or the cost of staying too small.

What happens after we mess up—after we hurt someone, fail ourselves, or cause harm, intentionally or not?  We can either spiral into shame—or we can turn toward growth. Shame disconnects us from belonging, but growth deepens it. This Sunday, Rev. Gretchen Haley continues our Broken | Open series with wisdom from the Jewish High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Together, we’ll explore how to find meaning and belonging—even after we fall short. ✨ A creative story for kids and youth ✨ Gorgeous music to ground and lift us ✨ Belonging, even in our brokenness

Lament is the cry of the heart that says: “This pain matters.” It doesn’t try to fix, defend, or explain. It witnesses. It gives voice to the grief, anger, confusion, and sorrow we so often carry in silence. Across traditions - from the Hebrew psalms to Buddhist stories, from African American spirituals to modern poetry - lament has always been a way to be fully present in life as it really is. Together, we’ll learn how lament can connect us, comfort us, and remind us: whatever you’re carrying, you don’t carry it alone. You can expect a space for all-out whining and collective sighing, maybe even some stomping of feet. And of course powerful music from Julie Koenig the whole way through it all. Most of all, the invitation to both share and witness all that we are holding, in community. Let's do this, together. Link to Book of Laments: https://simplebooklet.com/bookoflaments#page=1

Feeling entirely lost? Confused? Sometimes, right when the map fails, the real path begins. This Sunday: bewilderment, whirling, and the possibility that being lost can be the place where we are ultimately found.  Rev. Gretchen will be preaching, Christopher Watkins Lamb and Julie Koenig will be leading music, Rev. Elaine will be reading a wild poem about a crab, and many of us will be twirling. Maybe including you? Hope to see you there! 

Do you ever get the feeling that you are having an experience NO ONE could ever understand? Something too hard, too embarrassing, too messy....these feelings can make us feel so alone, and so isolated. But what we have learned (especially those of us whose job it is to meet people in these challenging moments) is that these moments that feel unique to you, are often the exact things that other people are struggling with too.  This Sunday, Rev. Elaine shares from her experience as our lead minister for pastoral care to remind us that the place where you feel most alone is often your place of deepest belonging.  

You don’t become a different person overnight—but staying in long-haul relationships has a way of slowly confronting who you were and calling out who you’re becoming. This message from Rev. Gretchen looks at how deep, lasting connections reshape us over time in ways quick fixes never could.