'BREAKING BREAD WITH THE DEAD' - Rev. Dr. Marlin Lavanhar
All Souls Unitarian Church, Tulsa, OK
Release Date: 10/30/2023
'UNFOLDING YOUR HEART' - Rev. Dr. Nicole Kirk
All Souls Unitarian Church, Tulsa, OK
The message was delivered on Sunday, September 14, 2025, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Rev. Dr. Nicole Kirk, Program Minister. DESCRIPTION: What happens when midnight falls across a nation's soul, and darkness seems so deep we can barely see which way to turn? An ancient parable about a friend's desperate knock at midnight becomes a powerful lens for understanding our current moment—where fear builds, divisions widen, and people push one another away. Yet in this darkness comes an urgent plea not for simple charity, but for something far more transformative: the bread...
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'A PLACE TO BELONG' - Rev. Dr. Marlin Lavanhar
All Souls Unitarian Church, Tulsa, OK
The message was delivered on Sunday, September 7, 2025, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Rev. Dr. Marlin Lavanhar, Senior Minister. DESCRIPTION What does it truly mean to find a place where you belong? In a world filled with diverse experiences and perspectives, the quest for connection and understanding is more vital than ever. Explore the depths of vision and community as we delve into the essence of shared humanity. Are you ready to discover the transformative power of belonging and the bonds that unite us all? SUBSCRIBE TO AUDIO PODCAST: WATCH THIS MESSAGE ON YOUTUBE: ...
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'THE MARRIAGE OF CHURCH AND STATE' - Rev. Randy Lewis
All Souls Unitarian Church, Tulsa, OK
The sermon was delivered on Sunday, August 31, 2025, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Rev. Randy Lewis, Assistant Minister. DESCRIPTION What happens when sacred trust is traded for political gain? History shows us that whenever the pulpit bends to empire, the church loses more than its conscience—it loses its witness. From Constantine to segregation, the temptation to exchange integrity for influence has left scars on faith communities and society alike. Now, with the IRS stepping back from enforcing guardrails, the question is urgent: will pulpits become campaign...
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'WHY PEOPLE COME HERE' - Rev. Dr. Marlin Lavanhar
All Souls Unitarian Church, Tulsa, OK
The message was delivered on Sunday, August 24, 2025, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Rev. Dr. Marlin Lavanhar, Senior Minister. DESCRIPTION What if your doubts weren’t silenced but embraced as part of the journey? Picture a community where people gather not to conform, but to wrestle honestly with questions of purpose, faith, and truth. Here, stories unfold—a mother finding healing after loss, an artist discovering belonging for his free-thinking spirit—reminding us that no path is too different to be welcomed. In this space, science and scripture, reason and...
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'A MOUSE'S STORY' - Rev. Dr. Nicole Kirk
All Souls Unitarian Church, Tulsa, OK
The message was delivered on Sunday, August 17, 2025, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Rev. Dr. Nicole Kirk, Program Minister. DESCRIPTION In a world filled with noise, how do we recognize the first time we truly hear? When fear, hunger, and uncertainty cloud our senses, what does it take to discover something as unexpected as music—and where do we turn when that source seems lost forever? Through a whimsical tale of cheddar and change, we’re reminded that beauty can emerge in the most surprising places, and that perhaps what we seek on the outside has always been...
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WHAT'S A UNITARIAN?
All Souls Unitarian Church, Tulsa, OK
The message was delivered on Sunday, August 10th, 2025, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Rev. Dr. Marlin Lavanhar, Senior Minister. What if unity didn't require uniformity? While fundamentalist religions across the globe insist that harmony comes through conformity to one doctrine, a different path emerges—one where Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, and Christians can pray under the same roof without abandoning their distinct traditions. Can an 80-year-old woman stumble into the wrong classroom and emerge transformed, her heart opened to people she never thought she'd understand?...
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GRIEVE GLOBAL, THRIVE LOCAL
All Souls Unitarian Church, Tulsa, OK
The message was delivered on Sunday, August 3rd, 2025, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Rev. Dr. Molly Housh Gordon, Visiting Minister. What happens when grief becomes the catalyst for transformation? In a world where brutality seems to overshadow beauty, where mothers count ribs instead of blessings, a powerful truth emerges: our broken hearts hold the very power needed to resist cruelty. Can communities built on shared sorrow become crucibles for change? When the walls around our hearts finally fall, will we discover that love grows strongest in the spaces between us—in...
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THE LOVE THAT WILL NOT FAIL
All Souls Unitarian Church, Tulsa, OK
The message was delivered on Sunday, July 27th, 2025, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Rev. Dr. Marlin Lavanhar, Senior Minister. DESCRIPTION: What if the greatest wisdom about love came from children? When 4 to 8-year-olds were asked "What does love mean?" their answers revealed profound truths that adults often miss. From a grandfather painting his arthritic wife's toenails to a little boy who simply sat and helped his grieving neighbor cry, these stories illuminate love's true nature. But here's the deeper question: Are you truly listening to where love is leading your...
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FAITH AND DOUBT
All Souls Unitarian Church, Tulsa, OK
The message was delivered on Sunday, July 2Oth, 2025, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Rev. Dr. Marlin Lavanhar, Senior Minister. DESCRIPTION: When you're struggling upside down like a fly on a windowsill, what force might come along to help you right yourself? Ancient stories like David and Goliath reveal timeless truths about facing seemingly impossible challenges with nothing but smooth stones and unwavering resolve. A single photograph of two girls in green dresses becomes a lifeline that transforms three lives across sixteen years, proving that small acts of kindness...
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'BACK TO THE FUTURE' - Rev. Randy Lewis
All Souls Unitarian Church, Tulsa, OK
The message was delivered on Sunday, July 13, 2025, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Rev. Randy Lewis, Assistant Minister. DESCRIPTION If you could whisper one truth to your younger self, what would it be? Would you tell them how to avoid heartbreak, or remind them they were always enough? In a world rewriting reality faster than we can keep up, how do we stay grounded without giving in to fear? History shows us that even unfinished work matters. Maybe the real time machine we need isn’t a DeLorean, but the kind that brings us fully alive, here and now. SUBSCRIBE TO AUDIO...
info_outlineThe message was delivered on Sunday, October 29, 2023, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Rev. Dr. Marlin Lavanhar, Senior Minister.
DESCRIPTION
In the book: “Breaking Bread with the Dead” Alan Jacobs is concerned about children watching only stuff that is marketed to and for them, that is “fired like an arrow to their amygdala.” Stuff that was manufactured for their immediate effortless consumption. Rather than pushing them out of their comfort zone, experiencing some ambiguity and thematic density.
He also writes about the importance for all of us of engaging the ideas, art and music of people from previous generations as a way of living with less anxiety in the present. One of the major ways that attending All Souls adds value to our lives is by regularly introducing us to ideas and music from the past in ways that improve our lives in the present. This Sunday we will recognize 71 new members who have joined All Souls over the last few months. The following quote from Jacobs’ book introduces my theme for Sunday and one of the reasons so many people are drawn to All Souls in these times.
"…information overload—a sense that we are always receiving more sheer data than we know how to evaluate—and a more general feeling of social acceleration—the perception that the world is not only changing but changing faster and faster. What those closely related experiences tend to require from us is a rough-and-ready kind of informational triage."
Triage—it’s a French word meaning to separate and sort—is what nurses and doctors on the battlefield do: during and after a battle, as wounded soldiers flow in, the limited resources of a medical unit are sorely tested. The medical staff must learn to make instantaneous judgments: this person needs treatment now, that one can wait a little while, a third one will have to wait longer, preferably somewhere other than the medical tent. To the wounded soldiers, this system will often seem peremptory and harsh, uncompassionate, and perhaps even cruel; but it’s absolutely necessary for the nurses and doctors to be ruthlessly brisk. They cannot afford for one soldier to die while they’re comforting one whose injuries don’t threaten his life.
Navigating daily life in the internet age is a lot like doing battlefield triage. Given that what cultural critic Matthew Crawford calls the “attentional commons” is constantly noisy—there are days we can’t even put gas in our cars without being assaulted by advertisements blared at ear-rattling volume—we also learn to be ruthless in deciding how to deploy our attention. We only have so much of it, and often the decision of whether or not to “pay” it must be made in an instant. To avoid madness we must learn to reject appeals to our time, and reject them without hesitation or pity.
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