Sunday Reflection with Rev. Aaron Payson @ The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester, MA

On this Heritage Sunday, as the congregation gathers for its annual meeting, we honor the enduring legacy of Unitarian, Universalist, and Unitarian Universalist thought — a tradition that has always held reason and compassion at its center. In a time of political chaos and global uncertainty, we remember that our faith was born from both courage and curiosity — from people who believed that truth and love could transform the world. This service invites us to reflect on how our heritage calls us to think deeply, act boldly, and keep the flame of justice alive.The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

6/8/26 • 11:05

In a world that prizes certainty and control, we pause and honor the sacred unknown and the spiritual practice of letting go—of setting down our relentless curiosity long enough to feel the wonder that holds us. We’ll consider how mystery softens our hearts, deepens our compassion, and opens us to beauty beyond explanation. Drawing on voices from science, mysticism, and poetry, the service celebrates the courage to live without all the answers—and the grace that arises when we do.The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

5/31/26 • 19:21

In a world often ruled by anxiety and judgment, this service invites us to explore curiosity as a spiritual antidote. Through reflection, music, and words shared, we’ll consider how curiosity opens the heart—transforming fear into wonder and criticism into compassion. Together, we’ll practice seeing the world not as something to control or evaluate, but as something to discover anew.The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

5/18/26 • 21:42

This week we will explore the tension between fear and the call to transformation through the intertwined lenses of the Biblical story of Jonah and Abraham Maslow’s concept of the “Jonah Complex.”Jonah’s flight from divine purpose mirrors the human tendency to shrink from our highest potential—the fear of greatness, creativity, and responsibility that Maslow described as the Jonah Complex. The service invites reflection on how fear can both protect and imprison us, and how prophetic possibility emerges when we confront that fear with courage and compassion.The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

5/3/26 • 19:37

This Sunday invites reflection on the sacred work of transformation — personal, cultural, and planetary. Drawing inspiration from Vanessa Machado de Oliveira’s Hospicing Modernity and Outgrowing Modernity, the service explores how endings can be acts of care: tending to what must pass so that new ways of being may take root. Thus, we honor the grief and grace of transition, embracing the possibility that every ending carries the seed of renewal.The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

4/27/26 • 26:18

In every age, the soil of the world grows hard with tyranny—systems that choke the tender shoots of truth, compassion, and imagination. Yet even in such seasons, the Spirit calls gardeners. Like Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary, we are summoned to cultivate beauty and resistance in unlikely ground. Her nursery rhyme, whimsical on its surface, hides a subversive question: what does it mean to tend a garden when the world prefers conformity?Today, as power tightens its grip and fear masquerades as order, we are reminded that faith itself is an act of rebellion. To plant seeds of mercy in the shadow of cruelty, to water justice where others sow despair—this is the contrarian work of Love. The garden is not an escape; it is a revolution in miniature. Each act of care, each refusal to bow to cynicism, exposes the lie that domination is inevitable.The moment demands gardeners who dare to imagine differently—who see the divine not in palaces of political power, but in the cracked earth, not in crowns but in cockle shells. The question before us is not whether the world can change, but whether we will continue to sow when the soil resists.The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.Tyrant, Tyrant by A. Payson (2026)Tyrant, tyrant, quite defiant,How does your country fare?With rising fears and wasted yearsAnd lies afloat on air.But seeds still hide on old truth’s side,Protected in the ground;Our hands unite to steadily fightAnd turn the world around.Tyrant, tyrant, quite defiant,Your antics sway no more;For roots push through what despots do,And hope again will soar.

4/19/26 • 22:18

This Sunday, in honor of Yom HaShoah (Holocost Remembrance Day), we remember the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust and widen the circle of our remembrance to include all who were targeted by Nazi terror: Roma and Sinti people, LGBTQ+ individuals, people with disabilities, political dissidents, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and countless others whose lives were deemed expendable by a regime built on hatred and dehumanization.“Remembering as Resistance” calls us to hold history with honesty, to confront antisemitism and all forms of bigotry today, and to recommit ourselves to building a world where every life is protected, every identity is honored, and no one is forgotten.The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

4/12/26 • 25:19

On this Easter Sunday morning, we will gather to celebrate the season with music, reflection, Easter eggs, and more, honoring the holiday. The service “On the Afterlife of Love” will explore how the story of Jesus lives on—not only in ancient texts or inherited doctrines, but in the countless ways communities across time have reinterpreted his life, teachings, and courage, invites us to consider resurrection as a continuing human practice: the ways love outlives endings, how justice persists beyond defeat, and how compassion keeps rising in new forms.The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

4/6/26 • 29:13

This Palm Sunday, we pause to consider the story of Jesus ‘triumphant entrance into Jerusalem, not from the center of the crowd, but from the quiet perspective of the donkey. What does this humble creature know that the cheering throngs do not? Through the lens of Unitarian Universalist values—humility, interdependence, and reverence for all beings—we explore the wisdom of quiet service, the tension between triumph and truth, and the sacredness of overlooked companions. This reflection invites us to walk gently, listen deeply, and honor the steady presence that carries hope forward.The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

3/29/26 • 20:31

In honor of National Everything You Know is Wrong Day, celebrated on the Ides of March annually, we will pause to consider the spirituality of imperfection and the role that knowledge and information systems play in how we discern truth. The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

3/15/26 • 27:46

Join us this Sunday as we honor International Women’s Day. For International Women’s Day Women’s Day (March 8th), we will joyously pay tribute to ourselves as women, honor the prophetic leadership and legacy of the largely unknown Black Feminist Ella Baker, often called “the female Martin Luther King” for her prophetic leadership during the Civil Rights Movement. We will learn about her prophetic leadership during the Civil Rights era. The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

3/9/26 • 11:33

We gather this first Sunday in March to kick off our 2026 Stewardship Drive, exploring what it means to be bound together in this community, changing one another and our world for the better. “For Good” is the sequel to last year’s theme, “Defying Gravity!” The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

3/2/26 • 10:12

We gather this week on the first Sunday of Lent to explore the dueling desires for wanting more out of life and less in it at the same time. What does it mean to wish for more and want less? What might the Lenten tradition offer us in response to this seemingly eternal tension? The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

2/23/26 • 24:52

Join us this Sunday as we honor the Buddhist celebration of Nirvana Day that celebrates the Buddha’s enlightenment. We gather to ask if enlightenment, however, is in fact the goal in this ancient, revered tradition. We will also explore contributions to the Buddhist tradition from Black practitioners who help frame the essence of samsara (to move beyond the karmic cycle) to involve communal liberation.The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

2/9/26 • 36:42

Join us this Sunday as we honor the traditions of Imbolic and Candlemas, asking what it means at this moment in our history for the return of the light and what part in the process we all must play.The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

2/1/26 • 25:22

This service was conducted and produced online.Political scientists have suggested that it takes 3.5% of a population to successfully (and nonviolently) create systemic change. This morning, we will hear inspiring examples of creative, effective, and sometimes even playful resistance.We are pleased to welcome Rev. Alice Anacheka-Nasemann as our Guest Minister this Sunday. Rev. Anacheka-Naseman is in her first year as the minister of the Brookfield Unitarian Universalist Church. She is also the minister emerita for the Unitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson, where she served for 20 years as DRE, associate minister, and then as the solo minister. She lives in Amherst, MA, with her spouse, one of their two young adult kids, two cats, a dog, and two rats. The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

1/25/26 • 17:46

We pause on this Sunday to reflect on the legacy and unfinished work of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., asking what it is that we might continue to commit ourselves to so that we realize more justice in our country and world, and honor the humanity of all people? The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

1/19/26 • 27:06

This week, we will explore the notion of “sabbath economics” as a critique of the current economic disparities in our country and world. What would it mean to commit our resources so that we paid our social debts and placed the common good at the heart of our combined efforts? Join us for this important reflection.The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

1/11/26 • 26:45

This week, we return to our annual tradition of a “Ask the Minister” Sunday, when the reflection will be made up of answers to questions asked by members and friends of the congregation. Aaron will also have a few questions of his own. Join us for this fun venture, a favorite of many!The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

1/5/26 • 44:44

The biblical flood story by Noah has been inspirational for millennia. More recently, science has uncovered facts about a flood unprecedented in human history, from a time and place that indicate it was the source of the Great Flood experiences and stories. Can this flood story by science be at least as inspirational as Noahʼs story? More inspirational? Perhaps a closer look will provide an answer. Four years of Catholic seminary high school and two years of seminary college, in the “Times they are aʼchangin” 1960s, led Stephen to complete college and an MA degree in the natural science of behavior (today called behaviorology). After teaching college in Australia (1975–1978) and China (1979)—and because, somewhat unbelievably, Ronald Reagan and James Bond signed his MA degree—he returned to studies and completed his Ph.D. in 1982. He then taught at the State University of New York in Canton, where he met and married his spouse, Dr. Nelly Case (in Cantonʼs UU Church). To preserve each otherʼs jobs—she was a professor of music at the SUNY campus in Potsdam, NY, a few miles away—they stayed in Canton for over 30 years and raised two children there. Then in 2016, they retired to Los Alamos, New Mexico, from where they visit their children, who both currently live in New England. Recently, Stephen and his wife, Nellie Case, have moved to Massachusetts and are becoming active at UUCW. Nellie is a retired Professor of Music and will accompany her husband during this service.The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

12/29/25 • 30:00

We gather for this service of readings and carols to claim the spirit of Christmas through stories old and new, songs, soloists, and candlelight.The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

12/25/25 • 08:09

We honor the Jewish holiday of Hannukah, remembering the ancient story and asking what lessons from this period of national discord and return apply to us today.The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

12/15/25 • 31:13

The Buddhist teacher, Ajahn Jotipālo writes:Ajahn Sucitto once said that we often think of patience as waiting for change. I will endure this situation, gritting my teeth, until it changes. Certainly, we might want a painful situation to change, but with true patience, according to Ajahn Sucitto, it’s more like thinking, I will be with this situation, period. In other words, there’s no expectation that the situation will change or get better.By learning to turn toward our suffering and simply be with it, we are staying at the level of feeling. We are not getting into the story, the proliferation, or creating a self around it. If someone says something to us and we become angry or feel uncomfortable, instead of going outward, as we typically do with mettā, we can go inward. (https://www.abhayagiri.org/reflections/692-turning-inward-with-patience)This Sunday, we pause to honor Bodhi Day, the Annual Day on which many Buddhists reflect on the Buddha’s gaining enlightenment. We will explore one of the essential dynamics of this process, which is our relationship to all that tries and challenges us as we seek to be our best selves in a world that is often bruised and hurting. Join us for this special service.The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

12/7/25 • 29:13

As we enter another season of Advent, we pause to consider the spiritual challenges of “waiting”. In their book, Discernment, Henri J. M. Nouwen, Michael J. Christensen, Rebecca J. Laird write, “Our spiritual life is a life in which we wait, actively present to the moment, expecting that new things will happen to us, new things that are far beyond our own imagination or prediction. This, indeed, is a very radical stance toward life in a world preoccupied with control.” Join us as we explore the spiritual discipline of “waiting”.The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

12/1/25 • 29:19

Join us this Sunday as we celebrate the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday by exploring the role of origin stories and how the one popularized in our country about Thanksgiving might better be understood. What shall we offer in thanksgiving this year? How shall we remember our history? What does our faith tradition offer us as we seek to create a more just and peaceful world? Join us and find out!The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

11/23/25 • 28:50

Writing for Religionnews.com last August, Phyllis Zagano quipped, “As several mainline faith leaders and the U.S. Catholic bishops have pointed out, the derisive oppression of poor immigrants by members of the current administration is sickening. That some administration officials continue to publicly espouse Christian ethics is mind-boggling.”Unitarian Universalism has a long history of arguing for a return to the essential nature of religion, especially Christianity, during times of political, social, and religious upheaval. This Sunday, we will explore some of that history and ask what we are arguing for during this present era of turmoil.The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

11/16/25 • 29:02

Sometimes, we feel as though we are fully authentic, entirely ourselves. Sometimes we feel just the opposite—lost, confused, as if we do not know who we are. Today, Rev. Michael F. Hall returns to UUCW to talk about the trouble we sometimes have reconciling the experience of Being with the notion of Self.Rev. Michael F. Hall has been an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister since 2012. After a 12-year settlement at his first church, Michael now serves the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Franklin, NH. We are delighted that Michael served as our Guest Minister this Sunday.The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

11/11/25 • 20:25

Rev. Dr. David Breeden, in a piece entitled “Compassion Needs Weather,” writes, “Compassion loves rough soil, the stones, weeds, the cracks between our best intentions.” This Sunday, we explore the place of intention and how, sometimes, intention can get in the way of healing, compassion, and progress toward peace. Join us for this important exploration!The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.Rev. Aaron Payson is in his 27th year as Minister of this congregation. He holds a BA in Psychology from Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, PA, and a Master of Divinity degree from Andover Newton Theological School, New Haven, CT. Rev. Payson is active in many community and denominational organizations and is an adjunct instructor in the Sociology Department at Worcester State University.

11/2/25 • 24:30

In his song “Holy Now,” UU Musician Peter Mayer sings, “It used to be a world half there, Heaven’s second-rate hand me down, Now I’m walking with a reverent air, ‘Cause ev’rything is holy now.” We pause this morning to consider what it might mean to give up the sacred/profane binary that has been the mark of many religions and ponder how our presence in it might shift if we lived as though we were part of a holy whole. Join us for this special service with guest musician Peter Mayer.The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen. "Holy Now" written and performed by Peter Mayer

10/26/25 • 21:39

Eileen Workman writes:You are not weak for trembling in the face of cruelty.You are not naïve for hoping when the sky darkens.You are not failing because you cannot fix it all.You are part of something ancient and emergent:a slow, deep evolution of consciousnessthat transcends the need for violent revolution.You are part of the sacred turning.This Sunday, we consider how this “sacred turning” is revolutionary. In the face of all the emotional, physical, psychological, and spiritual turmoil that seems to be free-floating through our universe at the moment, what might we learn from the poet who reminds us:You are not here to silence the oppressor,but to make oppression obsoletethrough the gentle, radical embodiment of wholeness.The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (UUCW) is located in Worcester, the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Our services are live-streamed on ... at 10 am every Sunday and stored on our website www.uucworcester.org for future viewing. The music you hear is from "Song Without Words," written and performed by our Music Director, Matt Johnsen.

10/19/25 • 16:44