Sermon- January 4, 2026

“Resistance as a Spiritual Practice”

A while back, during one of our staff meetings, I was asking Suzie about a hymn I heard while at the gym that day. I was wondering if she knew it and if we could sing it. Suzie looked at me through the Zoom screen and said “wait, wait – you mean to tell me that you listen to hymns or sacred music while you’re working out?” I told her yes, I do. Sometimes it’s UU peppy hymns, sometimes it’s the King’s College Choir, whatever strikes me that day. It allows me to go to a place that feels bigger or greater than myself. Sacred music allows me to connect with the deepest part of myself. It’s one of my daily Spiritual Practices.

One of the things that you all here at UU Wellesley do so well is social justice. We have an LGBTQ+ task force,  Bristol Lodge, Advocacy & Witness, Partner Church, Asylee & Refugees…the list goes on and on. We carry our signs, hang our banners, sing our songs, make calls, send letter and postcards. We resist. We resist injustice, inequality, discrimination. We resist. And what’s even more impressive is that this congregation is deeply committed to changing the world, making the world a better place. We resist.

Rev. Michelle Collins writes, in her opening to worship 

“Welcome, all who are restless for a world renewed. We come carried by ancestors who refused the silence of despair and dared to sing a new song. Their courage whispers through us still. Today, we resist by showing up—together. We resist by keeping faith with what is not yet. Our gathering is itself an act of sacred dissent, calling us to rise and unite as co-creators of a freer tomorrow.”

I so remember my first large-scale march, my first all-out resistance. It was 1992 or 93 and it was the AIDS march on Washington. After years and years of ignoring what was happening, our politicians ignoring the deaths and decimation of the LGB community, the black community, the drug addicted community, the nation finally had had enough and woke up. I remember driving to DC from Boston and seeing scores and scores of cars with rainbow flags, pink painted messages on back windows – all of us going in the same direction to finally resist. Getting off the subway in downtown DC, and the tens of thousands of people marching in the street was quite honestly, overwhelming!

But there was also another sense that I had that day. What we were doing was sacred. It was holy. The AIDS Memorial Quilt was displayed on the ground, across a very large section of the Mall. People were kneeling next to panels, weeping at the enormity of these losses. If ever there was a holy presence present, it was then.

Our third and fourth principles call us to accept one another and encourage spiritual growth, a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Our truth and our meaning – not anyone else’s. Our Shared Value of Justice tell us that we work to be diverse multicultural Beloved Communities where all feel welcome and can thrive.

For so many of us, that search for truth and meaning that encourages spiritual growth can sometimes be elusive. We go about our daily lives, doing the things we need to do to survive, without much thought about our spiritual development or growth. We ignore, or perhaps don’t recognize, that often, the things we are doing, are our own personal spiritual practices. Like me listening to hymns at the gym. Or perhaps you, shopping at Roach Bros. and getting lost somewhere in your head. Or writing letters. Or holding a sign or a banner. These sometimes banal actions can be as much a spiritual practice as meditating or worshiping on Sunday.

As Unitarian Universalists, marching and protesting, resisting is such an important part of our faith tradition. We march against inequality; we protest segregation and discrimination. Because we believe in the inherent worth and dignity of all. We believe in the equality of all. And doing so allows us to connect with that deeper side of who we are, it allows us a peak into our souls. And resistance is one of the most profound Spiritual Practices we can participate in. We do it not only for our voices to be heard, but to live out who we say we are – both outwardly and deeply inwardly. It is the holy, most sacred part of ourselves saying this is wrong. This is evil. 

But resistance can also be exhausting. And these days, we have a lot to resist! That’s why it’s also crucial to rest, to regroup. It’s critical to name your Sabbath and keep it holy. When you feel yourself weary and tired, stop and rest. In the book of Genesis 2:2-3, the author tells us that God rests on the seventh day after creation, blesses it and makes it holy. 

Ana Levy-Lyons writes:

“The goal of a Sabbath practice is not to patch us up and send us back out to the violent secular world, but to represent in the now what redemption looks like, what justice looks like, what a compassionate social order looks like. It is to reconstruct the rest of time from the viewpoint of the Sabbath as unjust and untenable… a truly egalitarian Sabbath that lifts up a holy vision of the world to come performs deeply political work: it builds an “outside” to the current world. The self that emerges from such a Sabbath and reenters the week is a changed self — a newly radicalized self who can no longer tolerate injustice."

So remember the importance of your sabbath, keep it, and keep it holy.

Which brings me back here, to UU Wellesley Hills, and to all of you. Our world, and especially our nation right now, seems so dark and so ugly. Again and again, when it can’t get any worse, it does. The ICE raids, the masked and unidentified men disappearing people from the streets. The boat strikes, the incompetency, the lies, the grifting. Added to this list as of yesterday, now kidnapping. But you know what? Resistance is working. There are definite cracks appearing, largely as a result of the people coming out of their homes and saying, “we will not tolerate this.” And there are signs that our leaders, our politicians are finally waking up to what real resistance looks like, and what it might mean for their futures. I have very little faith in most of our leaders, but I do have unwavering faith in folks like you. Folks that are stepping out, perhaps stepping out of their comfort zones, and fighting. People of all colors and sizes, all faith traditions joining together in their spiritual practice of resistance. So the next time you march, the next time you write a postcard or make a call, remember you are doing the holy work, the sacred work of resistance. This truth is coming from the bottom of your toes and is embedded in who we are as Unitarian Universalists. This is spiritual practice to its core.

In his article “One Drop at a Time” Rev. Cemeron Trimble writes: 

“It’s easy to become paralyzed by the scale of the world’s need. But we don’t have to fix everything to be faithful. We are each called to offer what we can—to take our drop of water and carry it toward the fire…”

Or as the Dalai Lama puts it: “If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.”

So, as we continue to struggle, march and resist, may we honor this spiritual practice deeply rooted in who we are. May our signs be colorful and pithy, and our resolve remain strong. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for!

May we make it so.