Preaching for us during our ministers’ attendance at General Assembly is All Souls member and ordained minister, Victor Parachin.

Do you feel that you are simply drifting through life?
Do you feel that you have stepped off your path?
When faced with a fork in the road of life, do you feel you went the wrong way?
Are there too many days when you feel you’re stuck in a rut?

For those who answer ‘yes’ to any of the above questions, there is this good news: Tomorrow doesn’t have to be the same as yesterday!

Transformation can take place. Change can occur. Resurrection to a new way of life is possible. Rather than cling tenaciously to old ways or resisting the new and different, we can respond to the Universe (or God or A Higher Power) when it is leading us to a resurrection experience.

This Sunday we’ll look at some ways resurrection to new life still happens today in the lives of people. Their own experiences bear witness to the truth that tomorrow doesn’t have to be the same as yesterday!

Since Father’s Day always falls on Sunday, for ministers and for their families it is always a work day. Luckily for Marlin, this week he is vacationing in Colorado with Anitra and Elias and celebrating their private time as a family. Marlin will return in time to write his Father’s Day sermon and to prepare to leave for the Unitarian Universalist Association’s annual meeting. This year our General Assembly is in Portland, Oregon. Marlin will lead a workshop on our latest book from Jenkin Lloyd Jones Press, Living a Call – Ministers and Congregations Together. Even if you are not able to attend General Assembly, you can pick up the book from the Book Table on Sunday mornings or from the office during the week.

We are fortunate, as a congregation, to have the opportunity to interact with our senior minister both as a father and a son. Three generations of Lavanhar men have touched the lives of many in this church.

This week may we be aware of those who have been fathers to us, and may those who have the opportunity to be father, stepfather, or father figure awaken to the significance and the joy of their role.

It’s June – a traditional month for weddings. Our family just celebrated the marriage of our eldest child, our daughter. There was a glorious sunset, a fragrant ocean breeze, and a beautiful couple who adore each other. How amazing to be a witness to their love and commitment when it seems only yesterday our daughter was racing from one Disney ride to another. Emotions ebb and flow like the sea and feel just as deep. Time seems to hang suspended as we share in our daughter and our new son-in-law’s joy.

Moments such as these are precious and sacred. Please join us this Sunday as we consider the act and the art of receiving. The best gifts are those that are shared.

I have described my own theology as rational mysiticism, religious humanism, and even described myself as a Gestalt theist. Coming away from the Sacred Activism conference, I have been engaged in more and more conversations with how it is possible to be both rational and mystical. My spiritual journey has included the pendulum swing from blind faith to an obstinate skeptical atheism. Reason has proved to me again that the extremes of any polarity leave out the depth and breadth of the human experience. I would argue that religious idolatry and idolatry of the mind are equally as dismissive to the big picture of our existence. Award winning Journalist John Horgan has written a book called Rational Mysticism that explores how science, theology, and philosophy all attempt to formulate an empirical explanation about the meaning of life. Come and explore with me how to link the mind of a skeptic with the heart of seeker.