Category Archives: universal salvation

April 16, 2013 · 3:42 pm

Another Darn Transformation Experience

Transformation is this month’s theme at UUCF. Thanks for reading. And for all those folks affected by yesterday’s events at the Boston Marathon–our hearts are with you.

***

Transformation!
Such a beautiful word.
It sounds like hope, possibility,
the promise that we don’t have to stay the way we are now.
We don’t have to be stuck.
We can change.
We can be different.
Such a beautiful promise. We need it.

But then there’s the kind of transformation we don’t choose
and we maybe don’t like very much.

I was 26 the day I discovered that I too was subject to aging. Continue reading →

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Filed under Aging, Death, Transformation, Uncategorized, Unitarian Universalism, universal salvation

March 12, 2013 · 5:06 pm

Stand by This Faith

Here’s a short piece I shared this past weekend in honor of Women’s History Month about Olympia Brown, one of my heroes. Enjoy!

***

Stand by this faith. Work for it and sacrifice for it.
Do not demand immediate results
but rejoice that you are strong enough to work for a great true principle
without counting the costs.

Words spoken by a lifelong Universalist who loved her faith
and believed in the great message that all people are precious.
A Universalist who loved her faith so much
that she was willing to fight obstacle after obstacle
to become an ordained minister—
the first woman in the United States
to be fully ordained by a denomination, in fact.
A minister and a tireless worker for the right of women to vote
for over fifty years.
This was Olympia Brown.
She spoke these words in 1920,
just one year after women had finally won the right to vote.
She was 85 years old. Continue reading →

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Filed under Olympia Brown, Unitarian Universalism, universal salvation, Women's history

September 22, 2011 · 2:36 pm

Immortal Love: Why Universalism Still Matters

Hello from northern Virginia! I’m happily settling into my new position as associate minister at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fairfax (uucf.org) & am glad to share with you my first sermon there. This topic takes on a special poignancy for me today as I mourn the execution of Troy Davis, whose guilt was so seriously in doubt that religious leaders from around the world intervened to try to save his life. To all who have lost their lives at the hands of governments worldwide–may they and their loved ones know peace.

–Rev. Laura

***

Immortal Love: Why Universalism Still Matters

Our subject today is love.
Not just any kind of love—
the biggest kind of love there is:
infinite, immortal love—
the kind of love our religious ancestors felt and believed in,
powerful love,
an active love that loves every person and everything that is,
a love that will not settle for anything less
than peace in every heart
and justice in every land.

This is the kind of love that burst the bounds
of the religious world of our ancestors many years ago.
It still has the power to transform us and our world,
if we let it. Continue reading →

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Filed under death penalty, Unitarian Universalism, universal salvation

May 23, 2011 · 4:27 pm

Unitarian Universalism, Fifty Years On

Last Sunday, the Unitarian Universalist Association turned 50! Time to reflect on where we’ve been and where we’re going. This one speaks directly to my own congregation, but I hope there’s something for all…

Peace,

Rev. Laura

***
Unitarian Universalism, 50 Years On
The Rev. Laura Horton-Ludwig, Minister
First Unitarian Universalist Church of Stockton
May 22, 2011

Happy anniversary, my dear church!
Or I should say, happy almost-anniversary.
Can you believe, this congregation will be 100 years old
in less than two years?
Unitarians came to Stockton early on.
And on March 28, 1913, we became a church:
the First Unitarian Church of Stockton.
Think of that: 100 years!
We’ve had our ups and downs,
just like any long-term relationship is going to have.
We’ve known a lot of wonderful good times,
and we’ve been around long enough
to know disappointment and heartbreak too.
That’s how it is when you dare to stick around. Continue reading →

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Filed under Congregational life, Diversity, Unitarian Universalism, universal salvation, welcoming

March 28, 2011 · 5:03 pm

Evangelical Christians discover universalism

Evangelical Christians are talking about universal salvation! Sort of, anyway. In his new book Love Wins, evangelical minister Rob Bell argues that God’s love is so great that everyone who tries to live a good life–whether Christian or Buddhist or Jewish or agnostic or whatever–can go to heaven when they die, no matter what they believe. He’s getting a lot of flak from fellow evangelicals, but also a lot of publicity. Is he a universalist? Probably not…but he’s getting huge numbers of people of faith to talk about questions like, How could a loving God send anyone to hell forever? This is not too far off from what our Universalist ancestors taught in the 18th and 19th centuries. Universalism gave hope and comfort to countless Americans. In fact, the doctrine of universal salvation was so compelling that, for a time, Universalism was one of the largest denominations in the United States. Our numbers are smaller now, but our message is no less needed. I hope and trust that Rob Bell’s work will interest a whole new generation in what we Unitarian Universalists have always believed–whatever happens after death, it happens to everybody, and it’s going to be OK.

May it be so.

Peace,

Rev. Laura

P.S. You might want to check out a review of Rob Bell’s book which I found very helpful. Enjoy!

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Filed under Unitarian Universalism, universal salvation

February 6, 2011 · 5:28 pm

The Devil Made Me Do It

Each year at our church’s annual service auction, congregants bid on the right to choose a sermon topic. I love this because their ideas always stretch me to preach on topics I might never have gotten to on my own. Today’s sermon is no exception.

Peace,

Rev. Laura

***

The Devil Made Me Do It

The Rev. Laura Horton-Ludwig, Minister
First Unitarian Universalist Church of Stockton
February 6, 2011

Back in the ‘70s, a comedian named Flip Wilson
used to tell this story about a woman named Geraldine.
Geraldine was out walking one day
when she walked by a store with the cutest little dresses,
and she walked right in and bought a new dress on impulse.
She didn’t really mean to do it.
It was just a spur-of-the-moment thing.
When her minister asked her,
“Geraldine, why did you buy that dress?”
Geraldine answered, “The Devil made me do it!”

Dwane Milnes is a member of our congregation
who remembers Flip Wilson and Geraldine,
and he challenged me to preach a sermon on that famous line,
“The Devil made me do it!”
So, thank you, Dwane, for the inspiration!

It’s not immediately obvious, I think,
what to say about the Devil to a group of Unitarian Universalists.
After all, the Universalist side of our tradition
has by and large rejected the idea that Hell or the Devil even exist.
Today, a lot of us are humanists
who may not believe in supernatural beings of any kind.
I’m pretty sure there aren’t any satanic messages in our hymns
if you sing them backwards! Continue reading →

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Filed under devil, evil, Unitarian Universalism, universal salvation