Unfolding Faith: Sermons from Foothills Unitarian

Finding Our Way in the Dark

Rev. Sean opens the "New Story. New You" series with “Finding Our Way in the Dark.”
A good story can inspire someone to action, provide hope to get you through a hard time, or help us empathize with an unfamiliar perspective. But a well told story can also dehumanize, sew doubt, or spread fear.
"The thing about stories, is they don’t just describe what is, they prescribe what’s next." 
Listen as Rev. Sean reflects on the power stories have to shape how we experience the world, the ways we view the people and events around us, to what we believe the future holds.What story do you have inside of you?

Fire Ceremony - Releasing In the Turning

We must release before we can receive. We open the new year with our annual Fire Ceremony—a powerful ritual of letting go. Before the new direction becomes clear, there is always a threshold: a space where the old stories, habits, and burdens must be set down so that something truer can take root. Through fire, reflection, and shared intention, we will name what no longer serves us and create room for what is waiting to emerge. Come ready to loosen your grip, to trust the unknown, and to begin again.
If you would like to participate in the ritual element, we recommend you gather the following items before listening: Small piece of paper Pen/pencilBowl of Water Stone or other heavy object There will be prompts to write, followed by music. The music is your cue to take the paper you've written on, and put it in the water, symbolically or literally destroying it. 

Listening in the Turning

Between the noise of holidays, pause to listen to that still small voice within. Community Minister and Hospice Chaplain Rev. Roger Butts will guide us into the contemplative practice of listening—listening to our own hearts, to one another, and to the call of the holy. In the quiet few days after Christmas and before the new year, we’ll make space to hear what we might otherwise miss: the wisdom that speaks only when we are still.

Christmas Eve 2025 - Come, Let us Adore

Joy is not something we force into being, nor is it a reward waiting on the other side of certainty or peace. Rev. Gretchen reminds us this Holiday Season, that joy comes to us as an invitation, as a gentle summons to pause, to turn our gaze toward what is tender and new, and let ourselves be interrupted by wonder. Adoration is the courage to give our full attention to life as it is unfolding, to kneel before the sacred beauty that appears even in fragile forms. Joy does not deny the darkness, but shines within it—quiet, embodied, and faithful—asking only that we draw near and allow ourselves to be changed.

Winter Solstice - Resting In the Turning

There is no growth without rest. No healing. No liberation. Rev. Gretchen invites us to rest in the darkness, and reminds us that the light can return. She’ll explore what becomes possible when we stop forcing growth and trust the hidden transformations happening beneath the surface.
 
In winter, roots strengthen, bodies recover, and the world prepares for beginning again. On this Solstice Sunday, we turn toward the wisdom of the longest night—the sacred invitation to surrender, renew, and let the earth do its quiet work within us. 

Longing In the Turning

What we ache for reveals our values, our wounds, and our hopes for the world. And yet longing carries real risks. It can narrow our vision; distract us from the present; it can try our patience and make us think we have more control than we do. This Sunday, we will explore what it means to practice longing faithfully, and how desire can be our teacher and our guide in the turning.

Waiting in the Turning (Rev. Gretchen)

What are we waiting for—and what are we postponing that’s ours to do now?
In a time of so much struggle and uncertainty, how do we honor the real ache for things to get better without slipping into resignation or deferring our own power? How do we discern the difference between the waiting that is wise and the waiting that keeps us from living? Drawing on the ancient idea of a “messianic hope” and the wisdom of kairos—the right time— we will explore the spiritual practice of waiting faithfully, living in the paradox of both patience and urgency.  

Loving Kindness Prayer and Meditation

Rev. Elaine and Sophia Miller lead a meditation based on a loving-kindness meditation, adapted from the work of Sister Karma Kechog Palmo, a nun in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.