There are a thousand reasons to hold ourselves back – relationships can be complicated, commitments can be exhausting, getting involved can feel too risky. Yet bringing ourselves fully to the world – showing up for our communities, offering our skills and time and care to each other – is where we forge the deepest meaning of our lives. How can we build the courage to bring our imperfect selves fully to the work of justice and love?

What does it mean to prepare—not just for a moment, but for the long haul? Many of us sense that we are being called into sustained courage, care, and action. That kind of faithfulness asks more than urgency alone. It asks us to tend our bodies as well as our spirits, to strengthen our resilience, and to root ourselves—emotionally, ethically, and practically—for what lies ahead. This Sunday’s service invites us to reflect on how we get ready: how we keep our hearts open without burning out, how we ready our bodies to show up again and again, and how clarity—about our values, our responsibilities, and even our rights—can become spiritual grounding. Come as you are. Come weary, ready, or unsure. Together, we will practice what it means to get ready—faithfully, in solidarity, and in deep love.

It is said that “every storm runs out of rain,” and yet the storms of our lives can often feel endless. As we gather virtually together amidst the winter storm, how do we remember that even in the worst moments, the storm is passing over?

With so many civil rights and freedoms under simultaneous attack, many of us are struggling to hold onto hope that we might still build the beloved community of which Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke. Yet Dr. King too struggled with holding onto hope. How can his radical legacy strengthen our resolve and our movements today?

As the glow of the holidays fades and ordinary days return, many of us find ourselves tired, reflective, and wondering what comes next. This Sunday, we’ll explore what it means to practice resistance after Epiphany—not as urgency or burnout, but as resilience rooted in community, covenant, and care. Through reflection and ritual, we’ll consider how widening our sense of WE, tending small acts of repair, and honoring rest can become faithful practices for the season ahead. Our new Interim Assistant Minister, Rev. Christe Lunsford (they/them), will lead us as we slow the pace, reflect together, and begin what comes next—together.

The dream job, the perfect partner, the miracle cure – it is common for us to fall prey to thinking that if we could get that one part of our lives “just right” that everything else would fall into place. Silver bullet solutions rarely work – how can we rededicate ourselves instead to the regular tending to our minds, bodies, hearts, and souls?

At the end of a calendar year, following solstice, celebrating holidays alone, with friends, and with family, where are you finding hope? I’ll tell some stories and invite you to reflect on your own.

We gather on the Winter Solstice, as Hannukah nears its end, to reflect on the beauty of darkness in our lives and the gift of light. In this time of year, and this era of human history, where can we find hope within the darkness?

We will tell the story of Christmas as it relates to justice struggles today using fun costumes and a no-rehearsal-needed script. All Ages Choir, First Church Voices, will rehearse at 10am – all are welcome to come and learn the song for service that morning!

Each of us tries to do our best with what we have each day – do our best with our skills, and our energy, and our resources, and our loved ones. Yet so much of life is out of our control. We may hate the places in life where we feel helpless, and yet we know there is meaning to be found everywhere. Where might we find meaning when we have no power to create change?

Join us in a musical service as we celebrate the holiday with hymns, songs, and poems of gratitude and appreciation!

It is easy to feel gratitude when we are happy and life is going well. But how do we find gratitude when it feels like the world is not on our side, when we can’t make ends meet, when “triumph and failure intertwine”?