First Parish Sermon Archive

Beverly V. Waring                                                            August 1, 2010
Starting Out: Visions of a Transitional Ministry                 First Parish in Wayland
 
Reading 1                                           “Working Together” by David Whyte.[i]
We shape our self to fit this world and by the world are shaped again.
The visible and the invisible working together in common cause, to produce the miraculous.
I am thinking of the way [...]

“REMEMBERING”
MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND SUNDAY
 
At the First Parish in Wayland
By the Rev. Ken Sawyer
On May 30, 2010
 
For many a year, I have taken this Sunday, the day before Memorial Day, to remember some of the people who have died since the last such service whose departure should not go without notice taken.
 
 People in the entertainment business [...]

“IN CELEBRATION OF MARGARET FULLER”
 
The Sermon at the First Parish in Wayland, Mass.
By the Rev. Ken Sawyer
On May 16, 2010
 
Over the years I have tried to include, in each year’s slate of sermon subjects, at least one biography of a prominent Unitarian or Universalist from the past. I give these only in part because I [...]

“Metaphors, Moms, and Joseph Priestly,
Although Not in That Order”
 
The Sermon at the First Parish in Wayland, Massachusetts
On May 9, 2010
By the Rev Ken Sawyer
 
The church year nears its end, which comes with Flower Sunday on June 13.
 
Yes, there are five Sundays still to go, and exciting ones they will be, every one, really, [...]

“RELIGION IS A CALL TO JUSTICE”
 
The First Parish in Wayland, Massachusetts
The Rev. Ken Sawyer and Ariel Jacobson
April 18, 2010
 
KEN SAWYER
 
          I have two quotes to share, one from me, and one from Glen Beck, the provocative conservative television personality.  You may not know who that is, but many people do, and none of them think [...]

“Certifiably Green”
 
The Homily at the First Parish in Wayland, Massachusetts
By the Rev. Ken Sawyer
On April 11, 2010
 
 
Nature has a particularly important place in Unitarian Universalist history and in the movement and many of its members today.
 
But saying that, one has to acknowledge that that high regard, indeed a reverence, for the natural world has two [...]

“REGARDING RESURRECTION”
 
At the Intergenerational Service
At the First Parish in Wayland, Massachusetts
By The Rev. Ken Sawyer
On April 4, 2010
 
 
Here it is, Easter, Passover, too, and the first day of the spring was just two weeks ago. Things are different on the south side of the world, where it is fall now, with winter ahead. But for [...]

“WHO DAT?”
 
The Sermon at the First Parish in Wayland, Massachusetts
By the Rev. Ken Sawyer
On March 21, 2010
 
 
          I have been to New Orleans for meetings of one ministerial committee or another twice, once only half a year after Katrina, and then this winter. The mood was different on those two occasions, as you can imagine, [...]

“THE POOR”
 
The Sermon at the First Parish in Wayland
By the Rev. Ken Sawyer
On March 7, 2010
 
The poor. That’s my assignment. Every year both Erin and I have a sermon title or topic put up for auction to help raise money for the church. I thank Barbara Buell for her generous bid and for having thought [...]

“LOVE AND DEATH ON VALENTINE’S DAY”
 
The Sermon at the First Parish in Wayland, Mass
On February 14, 2010
By the Rev. Ken Sawyer
 
 
          Here it is, Valentine’s Day, and the choir is favoring us with four numbers that capture four kinds of love: eros, philia, agape, and caritas. So it seemed that I should preach about love, [...]

 “HOLDING ON OR MOVING ON”
 
The Sermon at the First Parish in Wayland, Massachusetts
By the Rev. Ken Sawyer
On February 7, 2010
 
 
I suppose it is probably time to forgive Jimmy Boyd, who opened the cage door, letting my parakeet fly away. I don’t think he was entirely aware what the consequences of his action would be. After [...]

 “WHAT ABOUT THE BIBLE?”
 
A Sermon Preached at the First Parish in Wayland, Mass.
by the Rev. Ken Sawyer
on January 31, 2010
 
 
It seems that about every ten years it occurs to me that I haven’t discussed the role of the Bible in a typical Unitarian Universalist church like our own, that the newer among us here may [...]