Sermon- March 15, 2026

“When the Spirit Moves You”

When I get home on a Sunday afternoon, after putting together and leading worship, after preaching, after socializing during coffee hour, I’m pretty fried. Leave me alone, don’t talk to me. Don’t even look at me! And nothing gives me more pleasure than putting on my sweats and binge watching “Say Yes to the Dress!” I know I’ve told you before how much I love that show, whether it’s Kleinfeld’s in New York City or Brides by Lori in Atlanta, I know every character, every salesperson. I know their personalities, their humor, their quirks. I also know it’s a reality show so they’re that.

What has taken me longer to notice, or maybe to understand, is their kindness – their kindness to each other and to their customers. Their kindness to these brides who only want to look beautiful. Every show has a “sweet” moment that touches my heart and can make me tear up.

What I have realized as I’ve gotten older is how easily now I can get teary eyed or choked up! I’m not sure if it’s just a product of growing older, wisdom, or just paying closer attention. I find myself getting choked up over the bride that found that perfect dress and whose father is overcome with emotion. For as dark as the world can sometime be, it can also be incredibly beautiful and moving.

Mark Nepo writes “Still yourself and listen and soon, in time, the Mystery will begin to speak to you, through its thousand disguises as life on Earth.”

There is a wonderful story in the Hebrew Bible about the Prophet Elijah waiting in a cave for God to pass by him. A hurricane force storm passes by, then the rumblings of a serious earthquake, and finally an engulfing fire, but no God. Then a stillness and quietness, and from deep within himself he hears a soft, quiet voice…”Elijah, why are you here?” Still yourself and listen and soon, in time, the Mystery will begin to speak to you.

Native American tribes are filled with stories about the Creator, or Great Spirit, often focusing on silence and nature. In the Lakota tradition, The Creator at Devils Tower tells the tale of two boys being chased by a giant bear and they pray for help. The Great Spirit heard their plea and caused the ground beneath them to rise high into the air, forming the rock pillar now known as Devils Tower. The bear could not reach them, saving them through the creation of a sacred landmark.

Many Native American traditions feature a youth or elder seeking guidance in isolation and silence. In these, the Creator often speaks through nature—a voice in the wind, a thunderstorm, or a messenger animal like an eagle or bear, providing wisdom for the tribe, rather than a visible form. The Creator is often recognized in the "silence of the heart" or the natural world, emphasizing that the earth is not separate from the divine. The "First Nations Version" of the Gospels illustrates this, retelling stories where the "Great Spirit" or "Creator" is found in the everyday life of the land.

So the concept of searching for the Creator or the Divine or the Mystery is an ancient concept. We’re still asking the same questions today – perhaps in different forms, using different words. But our desire to find meaning, to connect to something that is greater than ourselves, is ageless. It may be in understanding the beauty of our human existence, the beauty of the natural world around us. It may be in the form of rituals that bring your spirit closer to what your truth might be, or it may be just watching a silly show on HGTV!

So it saddens me that so many of us – me included – for so long wanted nothing to do with religion. Don’t talk to me about God, don’t talk to me about the Divine or the Holy or the Creator – I don’t want to hear it. Now I understand that it was my own pain and hurt caused by the traditional religious and holy people that affected how I viewed religion.

The thing that is most precious – and might I say “holy” about Unitarian Universalism is that my truth may be different then your truth. I may feel connected sitting by the ocean or watching a butterfly. Your truth, or your connection might be admiring the spectacular stained glass window in an ancient cathedral or smelling the scent of freshly burnt incense. And another’s might be deeply connecting with another human being. My point is that it’s all the same. We’re all asking the same question, just differently. And our faith tradition gives us the room to ask those questions, to explore what meaning and truth is to each of us.

Recently I was having dinner with a dear friend of mine and she asked, “tell me about this UU stuff.” She lost her husband about a year ago and is feeling the need to connect with a community, and to connect spiritually. She grew up in a traditional Christian religion but finds no solace there now. She told me she googled UUism and kinda liked what she read. She said, “so you can really believe whatever you want, right?” I love those kinds of questions – it gives me the opportunity to be an undercover minister!

That question led into a deeply personal and fulfilling conversation about religion, life, relationships and connection. We are all asking the same question, just differently. Our need to be seen, to be heard, to connect…to hear that tiny voice saying, “why are you here?”

In her poem “Because I Brought You Here” by Carolyn Chilton Casas, she writes:

“here is so much I hope

for you to know.

So, I point to things and say—

pay attention to the mist

as it rests on the ocean’s surface,

how its radiance transforms

by the second.

Look at that man,

how he gently converses

with the child;

this is true masculinity, a reverence

for innocence and life.

Notice the barn owl visiting

at dusk, who recognizes

that your vocal chords resonate

to the same tones his do.

See the teenager whose ensemble

and hairstyle tell a story

of how she heeds

her own guiding light—

what courage and grace

in today’s age of followers.

Greet the jackrabbit

living under the garden cart;

even though she was taught to fear,

see how she perks her ears

towards you in longing

of forgotten oneness.

I so want you to see

the perfectness of how we fit

together—the wonder of this world.

Because I brought you here.”

So, I see the true question, as Elijah so long ago pined over, “why are you here?” And that is a good place to start. Why are YOU here? Why are WE here?

Regardless of how you answer that question – whether it’s with a deeply thought out theology or a simple “to make the world a better place” each of us has a purpose, each of our lives have meaning and matters, and as people of faith, each of us must struggle with our own answer. But remember to give thanks to the blessings of our Unitarian Universalist faith – we are given the freedom to explore, the freedom to search, the freedom to find our own truth.

As a baby UU many years ago, I probably would have agreed with my friend’s observation that we can believe in anything we want to. But at this point in my life, and in this point in my own faith development, I understand that this is not really the point. The point, for me, is to pay attention to those moments – those moments that stop me in my tracks, those moments that help me answer the question “why are you here?”

So, as you’re contemplating that question, go home, throw on your sweats, turn on HGTV and watch an episode or two of Say Yes to the Dress! Embrace that lump in your throat or those few tears that fall. It certainly helps me answer that question and might also help you! Pay attention to those moments. Those moments that the spirit is moving in you.

May we make it so.