Writing Sermons

My first year of seminary was 1974-75 and my first sermon was in February 1975, fifty years ago, at the UU church in Hayward, California. I was twenty-four. It was not a very good sermon. I still work each week to prepare for a Sunday service, knowing my limits. I think of T.S. Eliot who wrote in one of his poems,

Words strain,

Crack and sometimes break, under the burden,

Under the tension, slip, slide, perish,

Decay with imprecision, will not stay in place,

Will not stay still.

At the end of fifty years of writing sermons, I give thanks for being here in Arizona. As I visit places in Prescott that I visited as a child, I think of other words from Eliot.

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

It is good to be with you.