Niels Teunis

Sermons by Pastor Niels Teunis, Hillcrest Congregational Church, UCC.

Sermons in the Key of Life

Sermons from a local progressive pastor.

The paradox of love and hatred: “Why would the world hate you for loving one another?”
Jesus’ command to “love one another” as a radical, non-reciprocal act rooted in divine love.
The initiative of divine love: “I chose you; you did not choose me” (John 15:16).
The Golden Rule vs. Jesus’ command: Love as an outpouring of God’s prior love, not a transactional exchange.

Critique of the phrase “love is a do word” and its potential for guilt or manipulation.
Love as sacrifice: The tension between presence and provision (e.g., working parents).
Personal anecdote: A hospice patient’s final words (“I love you”) as an enduring expression of love.
Love as a living, abiding force that transcends the “doing” and exists in connection.
Parallels with the Bhagavad Gita: The yoga of action—detachment from the results of one’s labor.
Parallels with the Dao De Jing: “Seize no fruit from your labor”—non-attachment to outcomes.
Jesus’ teaching on fruit-bearing: The fruit belongs to God, not to the laborer.
The church as a space of connection, not efficiency or task-oriented activity.
Critique of busyness in church: Prioritizing “how we are together” over “what we do.”
The slow, relational work of building community: “How something becomes determines what it becomes.” (Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality).
The importance of warmth, eye contact, listening, and feeling seen/heard in community.
The difficulty of loving those who cannot receive love.
The call to release anxiety about outcomes, trusting that the fruit of love belongs to God.
The tension between the church’s values and the “cosmos” (worldly order): Success, money, fame, and materialism.
Alfred North Whitehead’s philosophy: Reality as process, not static entities.
The sermon’s title: “How something becomes determines what it becomes”—emphasizing the formative power of how we engage in actions, relationships, and faith.
Embracing change as a constant: We are “in process,” not striving for perfection.
Letting go of attachment to results in ministry and life.
The church’s role as a counter-cultural space devoted to love, connection, and the marginalized (“good news to the poor, liberation to the captives”).
The call to slow down, prioritize presence, and resist the world’s metrics of success.