Muddy Children
Hosea Ballou was born in 1771, and grew up in a Baptist family who believed that people were sinful, and should live in fear of a punishing God.
But when he was a teenager, Hosea started questioning the beliefs he was raised with. If God loves us, why would God want to punish us?
If God is like a father to us, what father would want his children to be punished for all eternity?
Hosea became a Universalist, and preached the good news that what God wants is for us to be happy, and to build our happiness through being kind to others.
When someone asked Ballou how God could show such grace even to people who were bad, he responded by asking: If your child falls down and gets all filthy, and you wash them and get them clean clothes, do you love your child because they are now clean, or did you clean your child because you love them?
Hosea, and Universalists to come after him, believed in a God of grace who loves everyone just as they are.
Want More?
Podcast: Download (644.8KB)
Subscribe: More
If you enjoy the ways in which Monthly Quest gets you thinking, come join the conversation on Facebook—search for the CLF Quest Monthly Theme Discussion Group. Read more →
Always Evolving
Podcast: Download (688.5KB)
Subscribe: More
It’s no secret that the CLF is willing to try new things and risk mistakes to reach more people with a Unitarian Universalist message of hope, love, and justice. Read more →
Mistakes
May 2015
“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.” —Scott Adams
Articles
Perils of Perfection
An overachiever’s high-stress lifestyle was causing a whole complex of stress-related issues: migraines, backaches, heart palpitations, and climbing blood pressure. Alarmed, her doctor told her she needed to slow down and learn to relax. Read more »
Imperfection: The Perfect Spirituality
My youngest sister Beth was very talented physically. When she was seven she could roller skate across the basement, up the stairs, down the steep driveway and the steeper hill of the road with perfect balance and grace. But she was very shy. Read more »
Want More?
If you enjoy the ways in which Monthly Quest gets you thinking, come join the conversation on Facebook—search for the CLF Quest Monthly Theme Discussion Group. Read more »
Always Evolving
It’s no secret that the CLF is willing to try new things and risk mistakes to reach more people with a Unitarian Universalist message of hope, love, and justice. Read more »
The Healing Moment
Each day I am newly reminded of my unworthiness: a dozen thoughts misspoken; another day when the good I do falls so far short of the good that I could do… Read more »
The Imperfectionist
The reason I’ve been able to produce so much is that I’m not a perfectionist— I’m an imperfectionist. Read more »
From Your Minister
Mistakes. The longer I live, the more clearly I know that I’ll never quit making them. So, one skill that I have honed to a fine point is that of apologizing. Read more »
REsources for Living
Contrary to popular belief, there is something to be said for failings and foibles. After all, mistakes are the basis of our whole diverse, ever-changing, interdependent web of life. Read more »
Afterward
Afterward, we want to say, But can’t we do that over? Say, But it was a mistake! Read more »
Mistakes
“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.” —Scott Adams Read more »
Did You Know?
That the CLF shop has a variety of items, from chalice jewelry to note cards, that make perfect end of year gifts for volunteers? Read more »
Blessing after a Mistake
After a mistake how can we start over and move forward?
(adapted from Rev. Rob
Eller-Issacs Litany of
Atonement)
When we are hurting;
I forgive you,
I forgive myself,
We begin again in love
John Murray and the Winds of Change
You never know what the wind will blow in or which way the wind blows. The wind can change directions and maybe change your life. It happened to John Murray. As a young man, John Murray had excellent fortune blow his way. He had a fine education, a steady job, a loving wife, and a young son. Life was good. Then, suddenly, everything changed. John Murray’s wife and their son became sick and died. John lost his job, lost all his money, and was put in jail because he could not pay his bills.
John was a very religious man, a Universalist, who had even preached about a loving God. Now, he was not so sure what he believed. He felt his life was over. Friends urged him to go someplace where he could start again.
He sailed for America on a ship named the Hand In Hand. The wind blew the ship toward their destination, New York. But then, fog rolled in and the ship ran aground in New Jersey instead. John and a few others volunteered to leave the ship, go on land, and get directions and supplies.
As he was walking ashore, John saw a farmhouse with a small chapel or church beside it. It belonged to Thomas Potter. Thomas Potter greeted John, gave him food for everyone on the ship, and invited John to come back and have dinner with him that night.
When John came back, Thomas Potter showed him the chapel. Thomas Potter said that he believed in a loving God who wanted to accept all people into heaven. John said that he believed the same thing. Thomas Potter told John that he had built the chapel and was waiting for God to send him a minister. “You, John, are that minister. I have waited for you a long time”.
John did not want to hear this. He was not a preacher anymore and he was determined to never preach again. Yet, Thomas Potter seemed confident that John was the Universalist preacher he waited for and he asked John to preach on Sunday. “I can’t preach on Sunday,” said John, “because as soon as the wind changes, my boat will set sail and I must be on it.”
“If the boat has not sailed by Sunday, will you preach?” asked Thomas Potter.
“If I am still here on Sunday, I will preach,” said John Murray.
Now, what do you think happened? Did the wind blow? Did the Hand In Hand sail away, taking John Murray with it?
No wind blew.
No ship sailed.
John Murray preached on Sunday morning, September 30, 1770, in the chapel Thomas Potter built for him many years before.
The Universalist message of the power of love was good news to many who heard. It was good news for John. The winds of change blew yet again for John Murray. He now wanted to preach more than anything and he did, for many years, and helped found Universalism in America. He is one of the ancestors of our faith home and we, as Unitarian Universalists, owe a special thanks to Thomas Potter. It was his hospitality that brought John Murray back to the pulpit. We also owe a special thanks to the wind that blew him in and would not blow him out.
From the UUA’s Tapestry of Faith Curriculum.
Did You Know?
Podcast: Download (318.2KB)
Subscribe: More
That the CLF shop has a variety of items, from chalice jewelry to note cards, that make perfect end of year gifts for volunteers? Read more →
Healing
April 2015
“Healing yourself is connected with healing others.” —Maya Angelou
Articles
The Healing Touch
For most of my childhood and adult life, I had been very dismissive of miracles portrayed in the New Testament, including the healing stories. Read more »
Notice of Annual Meeting
Per Article VII, Sections 1 and 2, of the Church of the Larger Fellowship (CLF) Bylaws, the 42nd Annual Meeting will be held via conference call and screen sharing on June 18, 2015 at 6:00PM Eastern Time. Read more »
We Go to the Sea
When my dad was a kid, his father had a stroke. Everyone in their church clucked their tongues. It’s too bad, they said, that God had seen fit for that to happen. Read more »
Praying in the Wind
Today, howling winds, too often heard in these parts, tear through the glass windows sealed for comfort. Incorrigible. Read more »
Healing
Don’t speak to me of “healing” racism, Or “wounded souls” or the “painful hurt” Until you are willing to look at my skin Read more »
From Your Minister
I told someone with a long-term illness—in this person’s case, chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)—that I was writing a column on healing. Healing, she said. I’ve come to dislike that word intensely. Read more »
REsources for Living
There are plenty of things to wonder about in the Easter story, but here’s one of them. If Jesus was a miracle healer, someone who cured everything from blindness to skin disease, someone who even raised a man from the dead, then why didn’t he heal himself? Read more »
A Refuge of Spiritual Reflection
Quest Monthly is a refuge of spiritual reflection for thousands, and CLF’s online presence has been a healing sanctuary for many across the globe. Read more »
Did You Know…
Did you know that archived CLF online worship services are available to view at any time? Search on YouTube for “Church of the Larger Fellowship” and click on the “Playlists” tab. Read more »
A Tomb Is No Place to Stay
A tomb is no place to stay, Be it a cave in the Judaean hills Or the dark cavern of the spirit. Read more »
