Eating Dessert First

Eating Dessert First with Rev. Dr. Tony Larsen About his sermon, Tony says, “I have a t-shirt that reads, ‘Life’s Uncertain: Eat Dessert First!’  My sermon will explore this particular conundrum: When should we save the world; when should we savor it?” Service Leader: Bob Lindahl Music: Birch Creek Trombones             […]

Continue reading

Vexillolatry

Vexillolatry with Rev. Dr. Tony Larsen On this 4th-of-July weekend Tony’s sermon will explore an interesting (and, he hopes, timely) subject. If you are not familiar with the word “vexillolatry,” you can either look it up (probably online–many dictionaries don’t include this word yet). OR you can wait till this Sunday. Rev. Dr. Tony Larsen […]

Continue reading

The Wisdom of Marx

My sermon on this Sunday will examine the spirituality there may be in laughter and humor–including that of Groucho Marx. But, from the title, we may have a visitor or two who thinks the sermon will be about Karl Marx. So maybe I should have called it “God, Grace, and Groucho.” But then I figured, […]

Continue reading

Coloring Outside the Lines

Tony’s sermon on this Sunday is about what people sometimes call thinking outside the box, moving outside the grid, or jumping the rails of conventional thinking. It’s also sometimes referred to, simply, as a paradigm shift. Whatever we might call it, though, it is the foundation stone for almost every important movement, cultural change, scientific […]

Continue reading

You Can Only Get Here from There

You know that old expression, “You can’t get there from here?” Well, Tony’s sermon this Sunday will suggest that maybe you can’t even get HERE from here! That is, it is necessary to journey somewhere else before you can know where you already are. Rev. Dr. Tony Larsen has recently retired from being the minister […]

Continue reading

Not Too Bad Dad

Tony will speak about what he has learned about the ups and downs of parenthood from his own dad—including not just what to do, but what not to do. “In the beginning,” he says, “I thought I had been short-changed in the dad department. Now I’ve come to see that some of the burdens may […]

Continue reading

Triangles and Trinities

Tony’s sermon will explore the subtle power of threesomes—in religion, psychology, and philosophy (to name just 3 areas!). You could also learn a little about our Unitarian history from this sermon. Rev. Dr. Tony Larsen recently retired as pastor of the Olympia Brown UU Church in Racine. He served this role since 1975 (yes, that’s […]

Continue reading

Everything Happens for a Reason

Some religions say the answers are already given. (“It’s in the Book. I believe it. Period.”) Others say revelation is not sealed. (“Don’t put a period where God has put a comma.”) What difference does it make?! Rev. Dr. Tony Larsen recently retired as pastor of the Olympia Brown UU Church in Racine. He served […]

Continue reading

The Devil, You Say

One of the significant issues in our Unitarian and Universalist histories was rejection of the doctrines of hell and the devil. Tony’s first sermon with us this summer will deal with the idea of Satan, and how he developed in late Judaism from being God’s prosecuting attorney to being God’s great enemy. This development tells […]

Continue reading