Sunday, September 21, 2025
At our core, we are about welcoming, offering sanctuary to the last and the least, and by extension, to everyone. When we create space for those most in need of dignity and belonging, we build a spiritual home that embraces all who enter.
Welcome here is more than a greeting at the door; it’s a practice of justice, compassion, and community. To welcome the vulnerable is to affirm the worth and dignity of every person. To welcome the outsider is to widen our circle of love. And to welcome one another, again and again, is how we live out our shared faith.
We invite you to wonder with us: How do we live our welcome so no one feels like a stranger? What barriers, seen or unseen, can we lower so that all may enter freely? And how might this practice of welcome transform us as well?
Sermon, “Being Sanctuary” by Rev. F. Vernon Wright V.
Text below the video.
Good morning everyone. Today’s topic is sanctuary. Having been an avid reader of all things Arthurian growing up, sanctuary, was the notion that a church could offer safety and protection to people. Of course, back in the middle ages, there was only one church and it had its own standing army and had the power to name monarchs. But, the notion stands today, at least in theory. During the last go around with the Trump administration, churches could simply state that they were offering sanctuary to a migrant family and they were pretty much immune from ICE, as long as they were on Church property. That ability has been stripped this time around, we believe spuriously so, so there is a lawsuit going on to restore this notion.
Regardless of the legal ramifications of sanctuary, the concept of sanctuary is very real for us, and necessary. I mean how was your week really? For me it wasn’t so great. I had just finished up playing a round of civilization on my iPhone and was about to go to bed, when the banner flashed across my screen, “Jimmy Kimmel Fired for Views About Charlie Kirk.”
Of course I tried to put the phone down and turned off the light, but something about it just stuck in my heart. Stephen Colbert had already been let go, which was a blow. And when Colbert had been let go Trump had tweeted that Kimmel was next! The FCC put direct pressure on ABC! Are you kidding me? For saying what, that Maga world was doing everything it could to distance themselves from the idea that the shooter might have been one of them. Which they actually really were doing. And it turned out that Kimmel was wrong and that the kid had switched leftward relatively recently. So he was wrong, but I’m sorry, but that’s not hate speech, and he’s a comedian not a new anchor or even a newsy commentator like the legion of those who spew all kinds of nonsense and hyperbole on FOX news without one single bit of scrutiny from the FCC. There is no place in the world of reason that the FCC should have been involved. It not constitutional at all! And I was extremely upset! I felt that private pain of despair.
But then I remembered, there’s this place, called Murray (Ha), where we all understand this kind of late night angst. And I started wondering how many of you were also staying up late at night worrying about the direction of our nation? And I knew right then, that my diving into all this stuff wasn’t a waste of time. Here at Murray we can share our pain, whatever it is. Unlike so many churches I have served over the years, I can talk about the political dimension without facing a firing squad! What an amazing gift to actually have freedom of the pulpit! As Thandeka says, “I turn to you to renew my life… My despair is turned into hope.” Murray is a place I not only serve as minister, but it is also a place where I find like minds. And where we find like minds our despair has a chance to turn to hope! It is in a way, a place I can turn to. Even for me, the chief servant, you are my sanctuary.
Sanctuary is community we can turn to. Rev. Thandeka is an ordained UU minister, television producer, and scholar who has authored the “Love Beyond Belief” workshops for churches. According to her website, her goal is
“…to transform “corpse cold” churches (as Ralph Waldo Emerson put it) into sanctuaries that warm and elevate the human heart and inspire folks to stand strong on the side of love. …We pay attention to the feelings of wonder and awe and love beyond belief that bind individuals together and create healthy religious community.”
Though sometimes we might need to remind one another to keep our joys and concerns brief (ha), we are a place that pays attention to our feelings of angst, but also wonder awe and love. We understand that, though some of us might be religious, others of us spiritual, and some of us agnostic, others atheist, that awe at least, really is a human emotion and we like to invoke that with the spoken word and the wide array of engaging music we offer. And lastly, with our commitment to service, whether it’s helping with one of our many committees, tasks forces, the food pantry, or thrift store, or just standing out there on the street with a bunch of other Murray folk holding up a sign, we love together! Are we a bunch of perfect human beings? Absolutely not! Do we struggle in our week? Sure we do! But do we enjoy being in this place, do we find refuge and strength here? If you feel this way, Murray is a sanctuary for you: a safe place, a kind of home.
Now some might argue, who cares? What difference are you really making? Well, if this sanctuary helps us stay a little more sane or centered, if this sanctuary helps us feel friendly, allows us to make friends and keep them, if this sanctuary in any way helps us to not feel so awfully alone, so that we can have the courage to stay informed, keep involved, keep caring for one another, keep caring for ourselves, than this sanctuary makes a huge difference! It turns out that we offer sanctuary by finding sanctuary ourselves, by being sanctuary. If you want to offer sanctuary you first have to be sanctuary. Yes together we are sanctuary, together we are strong, together we are safe and free to be who we are! There are a lot of people out there who would be so happy if this church and the rest of the UUA would just cease to exist, and yes they pray that we do, but our light still blazes. Our light is still strong! Blessed be. Blessed be!
