Your presence here in such numbers today is a wonderful indicator that this congregation is important to you and to people you love....

We say in our church that the offering is a sacrament of the free church. What we mean by that is that we believe it is a blessing to be able to govern and support our religious community ourselves—to make possible by our generosity everything we dream of and do to live out our shared values.

This congregation is a theologically diverse religious community with membership open to all who are in accordance with our principles, mission and vision. We are a Welcoming Congregation to people of all sexual orientations, and we unconditionally welcome any and all of you to our community of...

The purpose of the church is to encourage all who gather there to grow more generous in spirit and in action. This is the great end of all the world's faith traditions: to bring the human being closer to the divine by acts of creation and compassion. We now take an offering that allows us to...

Not gold, nor myrrh, nor even frankincense would I have for you this season, but simple gifts, the ones that are hardest to find, the ones that are perfect, even for those who have everything (if such there be). I would (if I could) have for you the gift of courage, the strength to face the...

Introduction One year for the November Service Auction, [a member] asked and I agreed to have a sermon topic listed among the many items available for bidding....

When I was a child, the day after Thanksgiving was steeped in ritual. Every year my family would travel to Chicago for the holiday festivities. Our tour was always the same: We'd tromp up and down Michigan Ave., admiring store windows with animated mechanical dolls that served as actors for the...

The moment of prayer is an invitation to be calm in the midst of the tumult of the world and our over-busy lives, to bring together thought and feeling, mind and spirit, and to find some center -- some still point -- of perspective and peace. Here in this sanctuary which has been the home for so...

Once upon a time, a thief snuck into the room of a sleeping Buddhist monk. As the burglar rummaged about, the monk awoke. The startled thief ran into the snowy streets with the monk racing after him, "Please stop!" the monk called, and the man finally did, realizing that his pursuer was no threat.

In the end it won't matter how much we have, but how generously we have given. It won't matter how much we know, but rather how well we live. And it won't matter how much we believe, but how deeply we love...

Happiness is a deep, persistent and universal obsession for humanity. As one of my correspondents asked, "Why isn’t happiness the only thing that matters?" From the very beginning Americans (in particular) have made happiness a central piece of their national quest....

An Austrian millionaire was in the news this month for giving away all of his fortune. Why? "For a long time I believed that more wealth and luxury automatically meant more happiness," he said....

The journey was a long one. We started on an airplane, a 16-hour trip crossing the international date line. A van for an hour, then another hour’s plane ride. A pedi-cab trip, and a four hour van ride. Then another hour’s drive up a windy mountain road, turning off the road onto a rocky, bumpy,...

Each week we take up an offering for the support of this congregation, and often, for the support of others who are working for a better world. To be honest, we need your support—especially in todays economy, when pledges are down and the future appears uncertain. But there is another truth here...