The following guest sermon was submitted by ULC Rev. Torre Huffines. All ULC Ministers are invited to contribute their own sermons for consideration/publication. To submit a sermon, please email it to sermons@ulc.org.
Farewell to F-words everywhere. Farewell to the fallacy of failure and futility of fear. This is goodbye to the familiar and fatal expectation of the world around us to pave our roads to grace with false enchantment. Let it be known that a spiritual life is one endured for its miracles and lessons preserved and not for the foolhardy desire of a fragile society.
Purpose is something inherent to the soul, even if it manifests in unexpected ways. We have within us that deep call to create a better life and act out our expression because that is how we are designed. After all, we are divine skyscrapers crafted in the likeness of a divine architecture- let us then do what we do best and rise. To the degree in which we are like the divine is there a spark in us all that is rooted in the divine's need to create. Go deep into the self's hopes and passion. It is here we find both what we are made of and made to do in this life.
Farewell, then, to the fading of our dreams, the friction of hopes and sorrow, and the frightening illusion that you are not enough. Let us turn our fury for the unrelenting and focus it into that beautiful song your soul sings like a songbird set free.
Life is the road ahead of us paved in glory we create and the dirt moved by our own hands. It is the bravery to tread forward that will see us through just as it always did. Our hands do not need to be the cleanest or even worn free from sadness to hold seeds of bounty in their palms. In fact, tending the dirt is a tiresome job and hands never come back clean. Nonetheless, we can nurture that growth and build that road one brick at a time. Give patience to your life. It is not just a series of moments happening to you. It is a grand unraveling of purpose and ritual of defining who you are, right now, in this moment.
Farewell, then, to the finality of what we think we know, to the expletives of life that grant surrender with little in the way of perseverance, and to all that once fractured us piece by piece because as say goodbye to the narrative of life as it once was only then do we set off on the journey of manifesting what it will become.
27 comments
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John D. Partin
Felt is a useful thing on a pool table and having done for other people's problems and helping them because of having done that. Fish is useful as brain food and as something to keep in a tank and feed, in order to do something to care for a living creature, and to do for sport or relaxation and for that first thing. File is a useful thing for fingernails and, with rank, to refer to the general public, so long as they aren't personally rank, and to keep information in. Fill is useful if we have had ours of it, and to do at a gas pump, and to do with land to cover up some very bad or smelly things. Feel is useful to do toward other people's problems. Fall is useful for leaves and to do back on top of them when they have been raked up, to make leaf angels. Flat is useful for walking on and not so useful for driving on in tires or when it's a line on a cardiogram. Fine is useful for saying to people who ask how we are, so that they will leave us alone!! Fire is a useful thing to do to those who can't do the job, and for cooking food and heating homes, but isn't all that useful when the whole house is enveloped in it and we are scurrying around to find a way out or when someone falsely shouts it in a crowded theater, but could become useful again----if just put on that person!!!
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flugo
'Whoop-tee-doo!'
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Ty Ford
for real?
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SueW
The traditional “F” word is one of the most useful in the world, so let’s not let the prissy people go to far with this.
As for the sermon, no objections but not my personal taste, as it runs treacherously close to the prosperity gospel. It does thankfully lack the required “send me all your money and god will take care of you.”
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albertha-yvonne
Fantastic!
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Lionheart
Yes, there are many F words that can be removed as not really being of any use. "Faith" is one of many, but let's hope "Females" remain being as the woke would like to possibly get rid of it.🤪
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Bishop William Dusenberry, DD
The real (in terms of what it’s supposed to mean) “F” word is “fornicate” which those with larger vocabularies use without being considered “lowlives”
The other “F” word, is used by those who most often don’t know what fornicate even means, and this “F” word is the most-offer used adjective on Earth.
When the Holy Ghost impregnated the Virgin Mary (when she was a 12-year-old) the Romans didn’t believe that this was a miracle - and that’s where the vulgar “F” word originated. Originally the “F” word was supposed to mean “far fetched” or “to be believed by the sheeple.”
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Lionheart
Totally agree! Thank you for your insight.
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flugo
'bilberry': Only a Fool would state the virgin Mary's age at time of impregnation . . . . . . . .when there is no direct evidence presented. Only a Fool would intimate which is the most-used adjective on Earth, without reputable evidence..
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Bishop William Dusenberry, DD
Flugo; it appears that I might have greater access to primary evidence in regard to the age of the Virgin Mary than you might — so correct me if I’m wrong.
During a visit to the historical museum in Prague (2011) I saw a painting made, via a vision from the Holy Ghost, clearly stating the when he impregnated the Virgin Mary, she had had first menstruated three months after she’d turned 12.
If your source for the age of the Virgin Mary is considered more reliable than mine, please share it with your fellow ULC clergy persons.
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Daniel Gray
If you dont believe in faith, then why are you on a religious site? It takes just as much faith to believe there is no God as it does to believe there is.
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Lionheart
It was meant as a humorous rhetorical statement Daniel. I have faith that I will wake up every morning….or is that more in line with “hope” 🤷🏼
Thanks for your comment though. 🤗
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Daniel Gray
Nope considering your past posts, my statement is well along the line of your view of things. Or was all the times you attacked religion just a joke to you as well?
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Lionheart
Do you mean, is religion a joke? Of course it is! Why should anyone take it seriously?
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Daniel Gray
Then why are you here? Just to see your name in print? Just remember that the SCOTUS ruled humanism and atheism as religions and even atheists are demanding their own churches and pastors/priests and markers for their tombstones in the military. So if you follow any belief then you follow a religion, even if its the belief that there is no such thing or deity. So tell us Lion, where exactly does that leave you?
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Lionheart
I’m sorry you don’t understand what atheism, or secularism is. From your comment it’s clear you are very misguided.
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Daniel Gray
go complain to the SCOTUS as they are the ones that ruled these as religions, so get them to change it.
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Lionheart
It's because you misunderstand what the term "religion" is Daniel. SCOTUS doesn't say it's a religion, but "equivalent" to a religion for the purposes of the First Amendment.
"A religion need not be based on a belief in the existence of a supreme being, (or beings, for polytheistic faiths) nor must it be a mainstream faith.” Thus, the court concluded, atheism is equivalent to religion for purposes of the First Amendment"
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Torre Huffines
The sermon is in reference to the many things we would rather feel or fear when life is too much to deal. Its not meant to do away with your favorite things or expletives.
When life leads us to the darkest moments, there are many f words that come to mind.. the point should not be lost on the title. This is a poetic message of hope for the soul. It is not about the gospel or even toxic positivity that blinds us from the wisdom in our painful moments but rather a message of peaceful surrender.. Its been interesting to say the least to see anyone who could take it in reference to "files" or other trivial but useful tools. If the point of turning to your inner strength and ability to keep trying beyond just yelling the f word at all your problems is lost on the reader, then I would say the message was not for that reader. Many people understand the point being made without a conviction to distract from the message with nuances that boil down to posterity.
Thank you for reading, Rev. Torre Huffines Original author
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John D. Partin
With all due respect to you as the author of the sermon, you aren't more spiritual or holier than Jesus Christ Himself or St. Teresa of Avila or St. Philip Neri or many other saints and holy people, who still had senses of humor and joked about their work and themselves, which doesn't contradict that work or impinge on their dignity at all. We all have to take ourselves lightly from time to time or else we will become too wrapped up in ourselves and self-important and burn out quicker. "A Farewell To 'F' Words" naturally invites humor and other views, anyway, no matter what you intended with the sermon. Yes, we do need messages of peaceful surrender and "turning to inner strength and ability to keep trying beyond just yelling the f word at all problems", but that yelling won't stop, as you admit that you aren't trying to stop it. Profanity is a tool for weak-minded and lazy and even stupid people who can't communicate more intelligently. Thank you for your sermon.
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Torre Huffines
That's completely true John and I appreciate that. I hope my point doesn't try to extinguish humor at all! I think even above other things humor and the ability to smile or see things positive is crucial. The internet can be a tricky place to communicate so I hope it can be taken in stride to say it's not a slight to your own points either just that I want to be optimistic about the message being served and serving it's purpose. Thank you for adding your perspective as it is just as meaningful as anything I could say!
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Daniel Gray
So you are saying now that you know more then the SCOTUS, the same ones that ruled atheism and humanism are religions? Or are you saying you know more then the Atheists and Humanism followers in the US Military who demanded and received pastors and churches for these two religions as well as their own religious notice on their tombstones in national cemeteries as well as grave stones from the VA? So by reading your post it seems that you are claiming that you know more then all of these people. I am sure they would love to hear about this from you.
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Deacon Michael
Beautiful and encouraging words of wisdom.
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Jeffrey Stoecker
Oh, man. You're good. I'd go to your church to hear you.
May I keep one 4-letter F-bomb? FREE. But there are more. Of course, where would we be without Four and Five? ("Zamiss get four five?" -Who didn't love "Enemy Mine?") I can certainly do without Fame, no problem. But wouldn't it be worse without things- at least some things- being Fair? And I would be lost without being able to... Find. I love books, but have really expanded my world through Film. And I couldn't live long without Food. Who will help me procure additional useful 4-letter F words?
Lol well frig
Can't get anywhere without some sort of fuel.