First Unitarian Church of Memphis | 292 Virginia Avenue West, Memphis, Tn 38101

Literary Resources

I am often asked what my sources of inspiration are which I use each week in the Sunday service. This list is a compilation of the resources used from September 2009 and January 2010. Enjoy. - bc

Biblical Passages:

John 3:1-10 Do we need to be born again?
Luke 15:11-32 Lost in discontent.
Job 1:6-12 Introducing Satan.
Luke 17:20-21 and Gospel of Thomas 3 Locating heaven.
Psalm 42 Where is your God?
Luke 2:8-20 Be not afraid.
Luke 2:1-7   No room. 

Books, Poems, Articles:

Walden Henry David Thoreau
Accedi and Me Kathleen Norris
The Allegory of the Cave Plato
The Philosophical Baby Alison Gopnik
Wilderness a poem by Carl Sandburg
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek Annie Dillard
Wicked Gregory Maguire
Nine Ways to Cross a River Akiko Busch
The Clod and the Pebble a poem by William Blake
The Case for God Karen Armstrong
Stone Soup a French folk tale
Mayflower Nathaniel Philbrick
Dayeinue a Jewish song of thanksgiving
The Heart of Our Faith Rev. Galen Guengerich, UU World. Spring, 2007
Kitchen Table Wisdom Rachel Naomi Remen
Waiting meditation by Rev. Burton Carley from With or Without Candlelight
Stairway to Heaven  Rev. Meg Barnhouse from The Return of Radio Free Bubba
A Complicated Christmas Rev. Bruce T. Marshall from Taking Pictures of God
The Happiness Myth Jennifer Michael Hecht
Bright Sided Barbara Ehrenreich
The Secret of Happiness Garrison Keillor, Nov. 2009 Funny Times
The Words of Martin Luther King, Jr. ed. by Coretta Scott King
Walking with the Wind John Lewis
Saving Paradise Rev. Rita Brock and Rev. Rebecca Parker
Poems of Our Climate a poem by Wallace Stevens   

Order of Service Quotes:

"You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you odd."
 
"It is through creating, not possessing, that life is revealed." - Vida Scudder
 
"Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." - Matthew 18:3
 
"It takes a certain maturity of mind to accept that nature works as steadily in rust as in roses." - Esther Warner Dendel
 
"Without guilt / What is man? An animal, isn't her? / A wolf forgiven at his meat / ..." - Archibald MacLeish, JB
 
"An apology for the Devil: It must be remembered that we have only heard one side of the case. God has written all the books." - Samuel Butler
 
"Concepts create idols; only wonder comprehends anything. People kill one another over idols. Wonder makes us fall to our knees." - St. Gregory of Nyssa
 
"For the good I would I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do." - St. Paul
 
"Silently time passes. The only life I have submits to its power." - Hatsui Shizue
 
"The river has taught me to listen; you will learn from it too. The river knows everything; one can learn everything from it." - Herman Hesse
 
"Heaven has no address." - Burton Carley (bc)
 
"The Holy cannot be bound to an image of God. God dies to us so that the Holy can rise again." - bc
 
"The life of the spirit, our capacity for appreciative awareness, comes down to this-seeing gratefully." - bc
 
"Life is not fair and trouble comes to us without notice. So it is that we love. It makes all the difference. - bc
 
"The terrible thing about the quest for truth is that you find it." - Remy de Gourmont
 
"[Religion] is not something else to be got, to be added, but is a new life of those faculties which you have." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
 
"Have you met the inn keeper to your heart?" - bc
 
"You, therefore, must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." - Matthew 5:28
 
"I scarcely remember counting upon any Happiness-I look not for it if it be not in the present hour-nothing startles me beyond the Moment. The setting sun will always set me to rights - or if a Sparrow come before my Window I take part of its existence and pick about the Gravel." - John Keats
 
"He who confronts the paradoxical exposes himself to reality." - F. Durrenmatt
 
"There is no simple choice between the children of light and the children of darkness. Good and evil are not symmetrically distributed along political lines." - Saul Bellow
 
"We must always have old memories, and young hopes." - Arsene Houssaye
 
"What if paradise is not in some other place?" - bc