Category Archives: 1-SERMONS

These sermons are copyrighted. © 2010 Robert Eddy

THE PROPER USE OF SPIRITUAL METAPHORS

The Rev. Robert Eddy Posted on by

There are many metaphors used to describe the inner life: that which, these days is being called “spirituality.” One that I’m not going to discuss this morning is the metaphor of the craft. I’m sure you’ve all heard of the latest UU manual using this metaphor. It’s about Harry Potter and his life in the Hogwart School of Sorcery. Oh, you didn’t know that the author of the Harry Potter books is a UU? She’s not? If not, why is her latest book a variation on our flaming chalice – “The Fiery Goblet?”

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YOU’VE GOT ANSWERS? I’VE GOT QUESTIONS!

The Rev. Robert Eddy Posted on by

Journalists are trained to ask five questions: Who, What, Where, When and Why. I have four additional questions for those who have all the answers whatever labels they attach to themselves: Christian, Jew, Moslem, Secular Humanist, Atheist.

My questions were designed to help UU’s respond to Fundamentalist Christians but the same questions should be asked of any who confuse the intensity of their convictions with the veracity of those convictions.

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WHEN I WAS A CHILD

The Rev. Robert Eddy Posted on by

If I were speaking this morning at the old Methodist church in Saratoga in which I was raised and in which I was ordained fifty two years ago, I would be explaining why there was no real contradiction between the opinions of Paul and Jesus. But since I am no longer a Christian I don’t need to do that. It seems to me that these two men of the first century of our era had very different views with which we can agree or differ.

Paul wrote in his famous chapter on love
“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child: now that I am become a man, I have put away childish things.”

But Jesus – who never wrote anything so far as we know – is reported to have said that we should become as a little child if we want to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Which is right?

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THE PROPER USES OF NOSTALGA

The Rev. Robert Eddy Posted on by

On the last day of 2008 I finished reading Ted Sorensen’s memoir, subtitled “A Life at the Edge of History.” Sorenson, now 80, then 24, joined the staff of John Kennedy in January 1953 when representative Kennedy became Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy. He quickly became Kennedy’s major speech writer and eventually counsel to the president. They were an odd couple, the Nebraska Unitarian and the Massachusetts Roman Catholic. Sorensen was accused by JFK’s enemies of actually writing JFK’s books and speeches. Soon after the president’s assassination the Kennedy family asked him to write the official biography. You saw him on TV. recently endorsing Barack Obama.

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