Rev. Sam Trumbore's virtual home

Author: Sam Trumbore

  • Taking a Stand

    Call to Celebration What does it mean to be courageous and what are the challenges? Theodore Roosevelt (not Franklin) spoke some wise words on the subject in a speech he gave at the Sorbonne in Paris over a hundred years ago. It is sometimes referred to as “The Man in the Arena” speech. This passage…

  • Celebrating the Wheel of Life

    Celebrating the Wheel of Life

    Wheels and circles are very helpful. They give us a picture of what a cycle looks like. You start at one point. You follow the outline of the circle so that it continues to get further and further away and then it starts getting closer again until you get back to the beginning. Out and…

  • The Courage … To Be Wrong

    I didn’t discover the courage to be wrong until I was married. Oh, I’m sure I was wrong lots of times before that. My parents corrected me many times. My sister pointed out my wrongness without timidity. But I fought off being wrong rather aggressively. After all, I had my father as a model. He…

  • Higher Purpose

    Readings No fear Shakespeare version of Hamlet’s “to be or not to be” soliloquy. The question is: is it better to be alive or dead? Is it nobler to put up with all the nastiness that luck throws your way, or to fight against all those troubles by simply putting an end to them once…

  • Unifying Purpose

    Call to Celebration I begin this morning with the words of the Rev. Dr. George Kimmell Beach, Unitarian Universalist theologian and deep thinker on the future of our faith. These words come from an essay he presented to the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association’s Convocation in 1995 in Hot Springs, Arkansas. I was in the audience…

  • Liberating Habits

    Here is the service on habits I did this Sunday to kick off a series of three sermons on Purpose. Call to Celebration The Buddha encouraged his followers to make four great efforts:     to prevent from arising negative states that have not arisen to let go of negative states once they have arisen…

  • Living With Purpose

    I grew up surrounded by people driven by inner purpose. Barbara wanted to be an excellent flute player so she practiced, tried out for the orchestra at Newark High and got picked as first chair. My friend Nick with a beautiful baritone voice auditioned to be one of our high school madrigals. Matt had a…

  • Welcoming All Free Seekers

    Our theme this month is hospitality.  Here is what I had to say on the subject today. Call to Celebration We will be considering the theme of hospitality this morning, so I looked for a suitable nineteenth century etiquette guide for advice on just how we should be hospitable. Fortunately I was able to find…

  • Warm Welcome Home

    The separation between summer and the second Sunday of September as our congregation’s “homecoming Sunday” is fast eroding. This summer, as in previous years, we have had summer services that are not led by me (though initially organized by the Religious Services Committee with my help). I attended many of them after leading the mindfulness…