The toughest part of painting a room is choosing the color. Will it match the furniture? Will it be too dark? If you ask advice, everyone will tell you something different. I will use this metaphor to explore the way we live our lives. The Rev. Peter House (bio) speaking.

We all know people who are a little out-of-step. Some of them just are that way. Others make a conscious choice to break from traditional expectations. Sometimes they amuse us, sometimes they inspire us, sometimes they embarrass us, and other times they irritate us. But we all have received gifts from the marginalized people we have known in our lives. We will celebrate those gifts. The Rev. Peter House (bio) speaking.

We all have our moments when we are not at our best. We lose our tempers, we become impatient, or we behave downright rudely. Do we want people to make judgments about who we are based on those moments? If not, we must resist the temptation to judge others by such encounters. The Rev. Peter House (bio) speaking.

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright made headlines a few months back. After serving as a mentor to Barack Obama for twenty years, he now finds himself a pariah. Being a prophetic voice come at a price. We will explore the price prophets pay. The Rev. Peter House (bio) speaking.

Company is coming! It’s time to sweep, dust, and mop. Do we risk intimacy with our friends when we “put our best foot forward”? What values do we buy into when we never let people see how we really live? The Rev. Peter House (bio) speaking.

Our First Principle affirms the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Perhaps no group challenges UUs on this principle more than the so-called Fundamentalists. I will re-tell a story I shared about ten years ago about my personal experiences with some Fundamentalists. The Rev. Peter House (bio) speaking.

We have all had delightful encounters with complete strangers. It seems that there is a certain innocence to these interactions. Could it be that we are connecting with people’s souls when we lack information about them? The Rev. Peter House (bio) speaking.

Audio of the sermon: ste-010