UUMKE Sunday Service Podcast

Scholar Reza Aslan wrote in his book Zealot: the Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, “There are only two hard historical facts about Jesus of Nazareth: first, Jesus was a Jew who led a popular Jewish movement in Palestine at the beginning of the first century C.E.; second, Rome crucified him for doing so.” Join us this Easter Sunday when we’ll consider the resistance embedded in the early Jesus m...

On this Palm Sunday in the Christian tradition, we’ll explore who we think Jesus was. What can we know for sure? What do we think are his most important teachings from the time in which he lived and worked to resist a huge domination system—the Roman empire. How do we identify and nurture the seeds of our own resistance in the quest for personal and communal liberation?

You know those people who just get under your skin? The ones whose opinions are wrong, whose laughs are annoying, whose outfits are….whatever. And you know how sometimes they sort of, kind of, maybe are just a little like you? None of us could be who we are without being all the versions of ourselves that we were before, but sometimes it’s tempting to pretend we don’t even know our past selves. Br...

Holding our breath and taking the plunge can be both nerve-racking and exhilarating, whether it’s tackling a new role, visiting a new place, or sharing a talent or a new creation with others. Join us for an exploration of degrees and kinds of vulnerability — transitory or not, chosen or not.

Holding our breath and taking the plunge can be both nerve-racking and exhilarating, whether it’s tackling a new role, visiting a new place, or sharing a talent or a new creation with others. Join us for an exploration of degrees and kinds of vulnerability — transitory or not, chosen or not.

When we are forming relationships, it is often the case that vulnerability is the first thing we look for in others and the last thing we reveal in ourselves. Being vulnerable is often considered a weakness. But our lack of willingness to be vulnerable with those we trust inhibits our ability to ask for help when we need it. What if we thought of asking for help as a gift we could offer to others?

Poets from antiquity to today have lifted up the risks inherent in loving anything mortal, and remind us that such love can be rewarding and even holy. Join us for Rev. Jim’s first sermon with us as he explores how we can grow when we take a chance on love, and the ways that love can outlive our lives.

Love does not have to be reciprocal, but it grows when it is shared. We feel the love growing in our communities as we come back together in person. Being together in person shows the different ways that love is embodied, but it doesn’t happen all at once. Our community is in the process of resurrecting love. The love we share now feels more poignant, because of the empty places where people used...

Loving just one thing opens the door to love itself, which saunters in and changes our lives. As we grow with love, we find how our unique gifts contribute to the whole. Each of us has something beautiful to offer the world: a blessing that is ours alone to give. When we tap into loving the whole, and ourselves, we find the intersection of what the world needs, and what is uniquely ours to give. J...

Unitarian Universalism is grounded in love. The easiest way to sum up the UU faith might be “Love is God,” or “Love is the most powerful force in the universe.” Our tradition is living—without a creed, we learn, adapt and grow with time and new knowledge. There have been many turning points in our faith’s history, and each time we turn towards more love. Join us for this service where we celebrate...

What stories do we tell ourselves to make sense of the ever-uncertain world? What saviors do we search for in calamity? And how might we be better served as people of covenantal faith if we center ourselves in questions and wonder?

What stories do we tell ourselves to make sense of the ever-uncertain world? What saviors do we search for in calamity? And how might we be better served as people of covenantal faith if we center ourselves in questions and wonder?

“The centre cannot hold,” William Butler Yeats wrote in his famous 1919 dystopian lament following the first World War. Sometimes it feels like the world is spinning in ever-widening chaos, and yet our faith calls us to embrace a widening circle. How do we balance our values of inclusion, centering the margins, when the world feels off-kilter? Join us for this Martin Luther King Day service where...

Our community has a center, too, one which has been rocked by the pandemic and the changes it has wrought. How do we find our way back to each other, how do we return to a place and also know it for the first time? Join us for this service where we learn how to find the center of our communal body, balance in it, and use it to reimagine our future together.

How do we even find our center in this busy, chaotic world? In body-centered practices, your “center” is a real, physical place within, findable and learnable. How does that place relate to the center of your well-being, your life, your values? Join us for this service where we journey to find our center, listen to its truth, and reach to embody practices that will help us live there.

We cannot find our center in the new year until we let go of the old year. Although marking the beginning of a new year is somewhat arbitrary (we can make a new beginning at any time), January 1 brings thoughts of starting new endeavors and making new promises. Time is funny—it keeps going, it doesn’t care, we humans make it new. What do we need to let go in order to embrace a new beginning?

The poet Wendell Berry defined wisdom as learning how to live in a time and a place. This means that wisdom is dependent on context, rather than universal. How do you define wisdom? From what or whom did you learn wisdom? Join us for this service that explores who defines wisdom, and what the interdependent web of all existence might have to teach us how to live in our time and place.

This year’s youth service explores what it means to be radically inclusive. When we come to church, we expect comfort because comfort is often what we find holy. But if we want to be radically inclusive, doesn’t that also mean being uncomfortable? Join our youth group as they guide you through an exploration of both discomfort and comfort through music, readings and testimonials.

Audre Lorde cautioned that the master’s tools would never dismantle the master’s house. Yet it is clear that some demolition is in order. What tools can we use that will open paths of love and justice? Join us for this special Sunday when we recognize and honor our church members who are seminarians studying to become Unitarian Universalist ministers. Their roles are changing as they prepare to be...

Resilience is not a solitary project—it comes through being in community with others. The more diverse an eco-system is, the more resilient it is. Through being in community with many different people, we build resilience into our own lives, each weaving different talents and gifts into a tapestry that is stronger due to every thread. How do we cultivate resilience in community, and in our individ...

There are times in our lives where something awful resets the capacity of our This Stinks meter, raising our understanding about what qualifies as Really Stinky. While these kinds of tragedies can create more capacity for resilience, they can also create callouses on our hearts. How do we weather personal storms in ways that create resilience without callouses? Join us for this service that explor...

Is resilience simply the capacity to survive adversity or is it something more? Maya Angelou wrote, “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.” Join us this Sunday for an exploration of the relationship between grit, grief, and resilience...

Church is a place where we wrestle with moral and ethical dilemmas. Without a creed, how does Unitarian Universalism bring individual morals into a shared religious ethic? How do we teach integrity? How do we keep the integrity of our systems and institutions healthy? And most importantly, how do we bring shared values into practice? Join us for this final Sunday of the Integrity theme, where we e...

When discussing issues of right and wrong, people often use the terms “morality” and “ethics” interchangeably. However, morality refers to an individual’s internal sense of right and wrong, while ethics refers to a community’s shared understanding of right and wrong. If we are a people of integrity, then we also must define the terms of that integrity: are we in integrity with ourselves, our commu...

The Sunday Forum Program at First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee will celebrate the 50th anniversary of consistent years of Sunday morning lectures. You can count on a lively review of past topics and speakers, and appreciation for the many congregation members who have worked together inviting and hosting presenters through the years. It’s time for everyone to remember and share. There may be sur...