Beginnings, Rev. Josh Pawelek, September 20th, 2026

We begin our 2026-2027 congregational year.

            We begin as the last days of summer yield to autumn.

            We begin at the midpoint between the summer and winter solstices, a time of balance between light and dark.

            We begin as the lush, green summer season of exploration, play and discovery gives way to the yellow-gold-orange-red-crimson season of harvest, of winding down, of letting go.

            We begin each morning, noting a slight chill in the air and the first changing leaves.

            We begin as our children and youth leave summer behind and begin their new year of studies—most in school, some at home. As always, we are proud of them!

            We begin as our Jewish siblings observe their high holy days, approaching Yom Kippur tomorrow—that ancient liturgical cycle calling attention to the themes and the practices of atonement, reconciliation and beginning again.

            We begin with a full congregational calendar—last week’s backpack blessings and a homecoming picnic hastily moved indoors, art shows, contra dances, children and youth ministry parents’ orientation, Introduction to Unitarian Universalism, concerts, the coffee house, and many, many opportunities to participate in environmental and social justice and service activities: the GHIAA power summit, volunteering at Verplanck Elementary School, the CT UU Justice Ministry conference, the environmental voter postcard project.         

            We begin.

            We begin, once again.

            Let us begin, once again, with love.

            We begin as foolish, misguided and unnecessary wars drag on, impacting energy markets, impacting agricultural markets, stoking inflation, speeding the reckless development of military drone technologies, exposing the weaknesses of once super powers, exposing the inexperience, carelessness and greed of leaders who assumed it would be so easy, who assumed their invasions would last days, certainly not months, and never years.

            We begin amidst all the usual warnings of climate catastrophe, most recently the collapse of tens of millions of tons of glacial ice near the Langtang Lirung mountain on the Nepal-Tibet border in late August—1400 dead, 5,000 still missing—the vivid images and videos from survivors almost impossible to believe.

            We begin amidst new and increasingly strident warnings from technology industry leaders about the very real dangers of the artificial intelligence models they continue to develop.

            We begin in the wake of widespread and often violent immigration enforcement actions in Danbury and across the southwest corner of Connecticut. We begin, knowing that we are called to support our immigrant neighbors—and will—despite the risks of doing so.

            We begin also as mid-term elections approach in the United States, as the President and right wing media pundits continue to make false claims about stolen elections and voter fraud, while simultaneously promoting changes to voting that, whenever the courts don’t block them, disenfranchise millions of people. And thus, we begin with justified concern and profound anxiety about the future of democracy in the United States.

            We begin.

            We begin, once again.

            Let us begin, once again, with love.

****

            I emphasize beginning with love, to highlight language in the Unitarian Universalist Association’s new values statement: “love is the power that holds us together.” This congregational year I am planning a sermon series on the six Unitarian Universalist values. As many of you know, the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) adopted its statement of values at its 2024 General Assembly. We read portions of the statement at last Sunday’s homecoming service. It’s hard to forget our cuddly mnemonic stuffed animal, JETPIG, which stands for the values justice, equity, transformation, pluralism, interdependence, and generosity. The UUA’s values statement is still very new. It is still in its infancy as a defining text for Unitarian Universalism. Through preaching on the values, I hope to contribute to a growing body of work that names with depth, nuance and passion how these values define Unitarian Universalism as a religion, as a faith, as a set of broad spiritual practices.

It’s been two years and a few months since the 2024 General Assembly, but I haven’t preached on the values until now, in part because our congregation took time in 2024 to discern how we wanted to engage with the new statement. For the previous forty years, the defining statement for Unitarian Universalism was its seven principles. Many members of this congregation loved and still love the seven principles, and wanted to make sure they didn’t disappear with the passage of the new statement of values. We commissioned a discernment task force, which ultimately recommended that we use both the principles and the values as defining statements for Unitarian Universalism in this congregation. In response to that recommendation, we created a ‘principles and values integration taskforce’ to set some guidelines and expectations about how we would do that. We finished that work last winter. By the way, if you’re new to this congregation, you may be noticing a pattern: Yes! We create a lot of task forces and committees. It’s just how we roll. We might even consider adding a seventh value to the statement: committees! (It doesn’t do much for the acronym. Jectpig?)

The discernment task force also recommended that we develop a plan …. to explore the values through Sunday Services, Children and Youth Ministry, Membership …. and Adult Religious Education activities. We may create a task force for that. But even before that happens, this sermon series on the values is part of the response to that specific recommendation, part of an eventual plan. I am looking forward to this sermon series, and I regard this sermon as the first in the series.

****

Our ministry theme for September is beginnings. I am contemplating how to begin well. Though my initial impulse was to talk about what I’m looking forward to this congregational year—what we’re building together—I realized that if I start talking about the coming year—if I start looking to the future—I am missing an important, grounding message—a message at the heart of the new statement of values, a message not about where we’re going, but about where we’re actually starting from. Love is the power that holds us together. Especially because there is so much noise in the wider world: bombs falling; glaciers collapsing; ICE and Customs and Border Patrol abducting people off city streets in front of children on school buses; politicians screaming falsehoods about rigged elections; people struggling to pay bills—39% of households in Connecticut can’t afford to meet basic needs according to the United Way’s 2026 ALICE report[1]—because of all this, we need a simple, powerful message that reminds us of the love that resides at the heart of our religious and spiritual lives.

And especially because the northern hemisphere is tilting away from the sun, summer is yielding to autumn, and changes in the land are coming very soon, some grand, some subtle—all beautiful this march of days—the turning leaves, the harvest aromas, the crunch of dried leaves underfoot, the chill in the air, flocks of birds heading south to warmer climes; especially because at times the beauty catches us, leaves us in awe, leaves us quiet, still, grateful, we need a simple powerful message that reminds us of our connections to the whole of life, our oneness with everything, and how it calls us to center love, kindness, respect, compassion.

I’m mindful of just such a simple, powerful message in the Jewish wisdom story from the Babylonian Talmud, familiar to many of you, I am sure – not the Babylonian Talmud, but the story: A gentile seeking to convert to Judaism comes to the sage Hillel and asks to learn the entire Torah while standing on one foot.  Hillel responds: “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the entire Torah; the rest is interpretation.”[2]

I’m mindful of just such a message in Jesus’ simple, powerful words to the scribe who asked, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Jesus responded with two commandments, which have come to be known together as the great commandments. The first is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.” “The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”[3] 

I’m mindful of a simple, powerful message about the nature of religion, attributed to the Dalai Lama: “My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness. This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.”[4]

And I’m reminded of a simple, powerful story about love from the late Unitarian Universalist minister, the Rev. Robert Walsh, about a young woman who asked him if he would baptize her baby who had been born with a heart defect and was facing a risky operation. The woman’s home church refused to baptize the baby because she was not married to the father. Rev. Walsh started explaining the Unitarian Universalist child dedication to her, apologizing because it doesn’t wash away sin or get the child into heaven. She listened patiently. When he finished explaining she said, “All I want to know is that God blesses my baby.” “In my mind,” he writes, “I gasped at the sudden clarity in the room. I said, with a catch in my throat, ‘I think I can do that.’ And I did.”[5]

These are all reminders for me of the love that lives at the center of our faith.

The Unitarian Universalist values have a simple, powerful starting place. "Love is the power that holds us together and is at the center of our shared values.” I hear echoes of the story of Hillel teaching the whole of the Torah in this message. I hear echoes of Jesus’ proclaiming the great commandment in this message. I hear a resonance with the Dalai Lama’s simple religion of kindness in this message. Certainly Rev. Walsh’s baptism story speaks to the love at the center of our Unitarian Universalist faith. A simple, powerful message.

In response to each other, in all the ways we participate in and build community here at 153 West Vernon St. in Manchester (and with our online community), let’s be mindful that love is the power that holds us together and is at the center of our shared values.

In response to all the noise, the violence of war, environmental catastrophe, rising authoritarianism, threats to democracy, the increasing cost of living, let’s be mindful that love is the power that holds us together and is at the center of our shared values.

In response to the beauty of the changing seasons, the beauty of the natural world, the beauty of the earth, the knowledge that all is connected to all, the knowledge of the oneness of everything, let’s be mindful that love is the power that holds us together and is at the center of our shared values.

Now we begin.

Now, we begin, once again.

Now, we begin, once again, with love.

Let us begin with love.

            Amen and blessed be.

[1] See the 2026 Alice data at https://www.ctunitedway.org/alice-data/. Read the CT Mirror’s reporting on the data at https://ctmirror.org/2026/09/10/ct-poverty-measure-united-way-alice/.

[2] Bokser, Ben Zion, tr., “The Tractate Shabbat” in The Talmud: Selected Writings (New York, Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1989) pp. 86-86. Or see Shabbat 31a:7 at https://www.sefaria.org/Shabbat.31a.7?lang=bi.

[3] Mark 12: 28-31.

[4] Dalai Lama XIV, Piburn, Sidney, ed., The Dalai Lama: A Policy of Kindness: An Anthology of Writings by and About the Dalai Lama (Ithica, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 1990).

[5] Walsh, Robert R., “A Baptism,” Noisy Stones: A Mediation Manual (Boston: Skinner House Books, 1992) p. 31