2020 Sunday Services at Unity of Tallahassee

2020 Sunday Services

Human beings have an outer life and an inner life.  Each complement and supports the other.  With no outer world, which includes our bodies, there would be no arena to discover who we are as an infinite being.  Of course, with no inner life there is no consciousness of being or no thoughts or awareness of the outer expression.  The appearance and early experience of who we are is that our inner life lives in the outer.  This means then that the infinite is contained within and restrained by the finite; the unlimited defined by the limited.  We know this cannot be.  It must be that we can know ourselves as the unlimited, boundless being that is our nature.  We are in a workshop every day learning one simple thing – who we really are.

The Infinite and the Mundane (Rev. Bill Williams, 8/2/20)

You have probably heard someone say, “She/he is larger than life".  This is usually in reference to that person having a big personal presence in the world as a celebrity or an entrepreneur or just a very noticeable personality.  Actually, though, each of us occupies just one spot in the family of humanity.  Some seem to be more important or privileged than others.  Where is the equality in all that we have and in what we have been given?  Is it just an idealized and unreachable concept that we are equally endowed by the Creator with the true gifts of Being?

Your Divine Inheritance (Rev. Bill Williams, 8/9/20)

It may seem like a tall order to aim for a life that is free of the limitations fear imposes upon us.  There are useful and necessary boundaries for a functional and orderly life.  However, perhaps more often than is necessary, we might notice how a moment or a day feels constricted, tense, or threatened by events, whether actual or perceived.  These are times when we have allowed fear to construct limitations that make life much less fulfilling and happy than is our birthright.  How can we learn to recognize the useful boundaries in life and distinguish them from the artificial and unnecessary limitations?

Overcoming Fear (Rev. Bill Williams, 8/16/20)

Do you remember the line from the 60’s protest song that says, “hooray for our side”?  That phrase encapsulates an ingrained and cherished human tendency to defend ‘our side’ and be wary of, or maybe attack, the ‘other side’.  This can likely be traced back to a primal survival need that outlived its usefulness.  So, just how impartial can one reasonably be with family and other people, political ideology, race, or religion?  Let’s explore the possibilities that may be unlocked if everyone is willing to be radically impartial, particularly in this political environment.

Radical Impartiality (Rev. Bill Williams, 8/23/20)

Faith is an inherent quality of your being.  Faith is not something to get; it is a reality to be realized.  As we live our day-to-day lives it is inevitable that we will be confronted with situations, events, conditions, and circumstances which present as threats to our peace of mind and sense of well-being.  One very useful way to meet these challenges is to take what seems to be happening in the outer world as a prompt for learning the truth or underlying reality of who I am.  Perhaps, more than once, you have been ‘thrown for a loop’, as they say, and fallen into a dark place in yourself.  Faith is the light in that dark place.  Let’s learn some steps toward realizing faith.

Understanding Faith (Rev. Bill Williams, 8/30/20)

What do you do when your lived experience does not match your growing spiritual understanding about the goodness of life? This talk explores dealing with the emotion that comes up, and how you can use that energy in a transformative way for both yourself and your world.

The Inner Work (Rev. Bill Williams, 9/6/20)

The Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard said, “Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.”  But, one could say, "I do have problems that need answers".  Yes, each of us has to reckon with what life seems to bring us.  We must respond when events and circumstances drop challenges on our doorstep.  The question is, where does my response come from and what shapes my experience of life?  This is not a problem to be solved.  However, It does reveal what my reality is.

The Real and the Imagined (Rev. Bill Williams, 9/20/20)

The human mind is restless, moving from one event, object, thought, feeling, or sensation to the next.  In the process of awakening to who we really are, we learn how to use these things arising in our awareness to our advantage.  There is a place of rest accessible to everyone willing to open the door to this refuge.  Perhaps when Jesus said, “Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” he was not referring to an outside person or spirit, but an indwelling present reality.

Your Present Practice (Rev. Bill Williams, 9/27/20)

Science tells us that following the so-called "Big Bang", the first basic particles came together to form larger, more complex particles, elements, atoms, molecules, and so on.  One thing was attracted to another thing to form a greater thing.  This process continued through the eons of time until ... Ka-Pow! There was another explosive creation - the creation of self-reflective awareness or Reason.  The possibility of conscious creation within Creation was born.  This is the Genesis allegory about Adam and Eve and the beginning of a New Creation, the biblical "New Heaven and New Earth".  This New Creation requires conscious participation to be in it.  It's not a one time event, but an ongoing process of conscious living and loving into the realization of Oneness.  Let's see how we can play a vital role in the Second Creation.

The Second Creation (Rev. Bill Williams, 10/04/20)

There are fifteen Psalms that are called ‘A Song of Ascents’ starting with Psalm 120.  These are songs to be sung by pilgrims on the way to Jerusalem, ascending the steps to the Temple, or climbing Mt. Zion.  They are about looking upward or inward to find the spiritual experience or gift that someone’s life journey has to offer. This journey is for each of us to discover who we are and who we are becoming.  Life is a pilgrimage we are making individually and together.  This is a holy journey whether we recognize it as such or not. What are you and I going to make of this sacred gift?

A Song of Ascents (Rev. Bill Williams, 10/11/20)

The traditional motto of the United States, "E Pluribus Unum", is Latin for "Out of Many, One".  It is a statement of intention that implicitly recognizes the strength in inclusion and diversity.  It states the ideal as an end.  The unspoken and not ordinarily recognized hidden dimension of the motto is that the end is the beginning.  Where do the many come from to begin with?  The One.  All of us are in the process of learning how to recognize our origin and our destination.  We do this through knowing that you and I and God are one.  We practice this with the clarity of our vision, the words we speak that draw us together, and the actions of our hands that uplift one another.

E Pluribus Unum (Rev. Bill Williams, 10/18/20)

It is no great mystery as to why there is so much disagreement in our political arena if we become an objective witness to ourselves and our world. There is a culture of disagreement in society which underlies much of the interaction between individuals. Unchecked disagreements can become self-defeating and destructive. The human family is diverse. We are outwardly multi-colored, multi-lingual, and come from a wide range of religious and cultural backgrounds. Even this does not fully explain why disagreement seems to be so prevalent. Let’s explore this common human phenomenon and how it affects the way we think, feel, speak, and act. Most importantly, let's see how can we rise beyond disagreement as our life experience.

I Agree (Rev. Bill Williams, 11/1/20)

This is the complete joint service of Unity of Tallahassee and Unity Eastside led by Rev. Bill Williams and Rev. Jean De Barbieris Owen. In Unity, we have a saying:  "It comes up to be healed."  The on-going divisiveness in our nation, brought to a head by the as-yet-undecided election, is a good place to apply that saying.  What healing might take place if we allowed the apparent “illness of division” to push us into the awakened state in which there is no division, only Unity?

Oneness, Not Sameness: Using Differences to Know Unity, 11/8/2020

Have you ever thought to yourself or told someone something like, “I just don’t understand how they could be like that”?  Since time immemorial human beings have had to learn how to cooperate to survive.  However, a side effect to learning that skill is that we may also make enemies when groups form around an idea or an identity.  Making enemies can seem like a survival skill, but it also puts our sense of well-being in jeopardy.  Are enemies an inevitable component of the human condition?  Can we unmake an enemy?  Let’s explore.

How to Unmake an Enemy (Rev. Bill Williams, 11/15/20)

We may be amazed by stories in the Gospels about miraculous healings and events and wonder how these things happened; how the blind man came to see or how water turned into wine or a few fish and a little bread fed thousands of people. However, just what was the lasting effect of these things?  What kind of real change happened?  What can you and I change that has a lasting effect on how we experience who we are?

It's a Gratitude Thing (Rev. Bill Williams, 11/22/20)

Each of us sees and experiences life in a unique way.  You and I add a special ingredient to the mix of humanity expressing. It appears certain individuals make a greater impact within the body of humanity than others. This is only apparently so. In reality, at the level of being, there is no greater or lesser being. When this truth is recognized and accepted there is a great shift in perspective; life takes on new meaning. What I am here for on this earth, living in this body and experiencing my particular life takes on new meaning. Let’s talk about it.

On Assignment: Earth (Rev. Bill Williams, 11/29/30)

Each year we return to a place of collectively remembering to connect with family and friends around the transcendent qualities of who we are as peace, joy, and love.  We sing carols and say “Merry Christmas” while busily preparing for our family’s way of celebrating the season.  There are the religious traditions, family traditions, and the commercial aspects that intertwine to create the Christmas experience.  Are there more subtle, yet substantial influences and possibilities hidden behind the tinsel, the carols, and even the familiar story of the Nativity?

The Search for Presence (Rev. Bill Williams, 12/6/20)

By now you are likely completing your Christmas shopping.  Some people on your list may be very difficult to shop for because it seems they already have everything.  What would you give if, indeed, someone already has everything, is everything, and has given you everything?  That would be quite the dilemma.  At this point you would need to move on from shopping for things to give and see what gifts your very being can offer.  This may have been the challenge of the astrologers from Persia as they were led by a star and an inner light to Bethlehem.  What would you give?

Shopping for God (Rev. Bill Williams, 12/13/20)

The story of the birth of the baby Jesus is imprinted upon our minds and hearts, having heard it told again and again throughout the years.  Is the Christmas story an historical representation of events that occurred in the world two thousand years ago?  Or, is it an allegory that is a mystical carrier of instructions for awakening to a greater reality obscured from our ordinary view?  Maybe both can be true.  Let’s see if we can open to new ways of experiencing and expressing the Christmas Spirit.

Awakened by the Light (Rev. Bill Williams, 12/20/20)

A consciousness teacher once said, “Don’t forget what you didn’t do to get here.”  We learn how to do things to build something in our lives and in the world.  We gain knowledge, learn skills, and practice applying both in order to create careers and construct all the things we use in life.  While all of that is going on we also are acquiring unconscious habits, false beliefs, and destructive thought patterns that limit the actualization of who we have been created to be.  To touch the potential of our beingness, we learn what to not do.  Jesus told a parable about throwing a net into the sea and dragging it in full of edible and inedible fish, which had to be sorted out.  The fish to keep and the fish to let go is the work of becoming what we truly want to realize in the coming year.