Becoming Wise

5 messages, oldest first

2023-10-08 Listen Rev. Kristin Rev. Kristin opens this inspiring message with a vivid personal story of visiting divided Berlin in 1986, using the contrast between East and West as a powerful metaphor for the walls we build - both collectively and individually - through ideology, fear, and limitation. She introduces Krista Tippett's book "Becoming Wise" as a guide for the community's fall study series, emphasizing that listening is the essential pathway to wisdom and the key ingredient within all peace work and productive conversation. Rev. Kristin invites us to recognize that we are living in a new "axial age" of spiritual awakening, encouraging generous listening as a practice that releases our spiritual genius and helps turn the world toward greater connection, compassion, and oneness.
2023-10-15 Words Rev. Kristin Rev. Kristin explores the sacred power of words as part of the Becoming Wise series, drawing from Krista Tippett's work to illuminate how our language shapes reality, heals wounds, and co-creates the world we long to inhabit. She invites us to discover words that "shimmer" - words spoken from the heart that stop people in their tracks and reverberate with truth and beauty. Acknowledging the heartbreak of global conflict, Rev. Kristin calls each person to embrace their inner poet and prophet, using the power of their word to honor the sacredness of all life and meet one another in Rumi's field beyond wrongdoing and rightdoing - a field of love.
2023-10-22 The Body Johanna Van Gelder Johanna Van Gelder explores the sacred wisdom of the body through the powerful story of Matthew Sanford, a paralyzed yoga practitioner who discovered that our bodies store what our minds cannot process, and she invites us to reconnect with our physical selves as divine expressions. Drawing on teachings from mindfulness meditation, trauma research, and her own experience with illness, Johanna Van Gelder reminds us that bringing awareness, breath, and compassion to our bodies allows energy to flow freely and healing to unfold. She emphasizes that inhabiting our bodies with love not only restores our personal wholeness but ripples outward, deepening our compassion and connection to the world around us.
2023-10-29 Love Rev. Kristin Rev. Kristin explores love as the most challenging yet supreme calling of our spiritual lives, drawing from Krista Tippett's "Becoming Wise" series and the vision of the beloved community. She invites us to move beyond loving only when it is easy and instead embrace wholeheartedness - loving without exception, even those who perpetrate harm - recognizing that hurting people have lost sight of their divine nature and need our love most. Rev. Kristin reminds us that spiritual practice fortifies us to stay open and sensitive in a world that tries to desensitize, and that our wholehearted love serves as the "critical yeast" needed to co-create heaven on earth together.
2023-11-12 Hope Rev. Kristin