Yes, sometimes I go too far with a sermon title, but in a playful way my sermon “Falling Back in Love with the Bible” will explore what people of liberal religion can do with the Bible. Over my life I’ve loved the Bible, and rejected it, and loved it, and rejected it, only to come finally to a deeper understanding of the stories and history it contains. Come hear some of my journey with this complicated text that is so much a part of Western culture’s art, literature, and history.

I almost called this week’s sermon “Dr. Strangebook: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bible.” But that would have really been going too far!

But as the “Unitarian Controversy” escalated, there was a real need to create some solidarity between like-minded ministers and  churches — and to that end, reluctant radical William Ellery Channing stepped up to leadership. His sermon “Unitarian Christianity” was the first time a liberal had embraced the name Unitarian, and it stuck.

These are organizational questions, but they are personal ones as well. Sunday we will explore the concept of Appreciative Inquiry and how it can be applied to our life together — as well as in our families, marriages, and relationships.

Or, perhaps, all of the above!

As I talk about our sixth source (“the spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature”), I will consider: flying, building the space station, the ignorance of two young fishes, and most important, the earth’s fragile environment of which we are all a part.

Each of us has a number associated with our age, which tells us something about where we are in the progression of our lives. The teen years evaporate into young adulthood into maturity into middle age into the wisdom years. But as I travel through my ministry, I hear so many of my elders ask, “Where did the years go? How did I wind up theage I am? I don’t *feel* … “  

The real question might be: Do we too quickly just accept the number that’s been given to us, along with all its associated problems and cares? “Well, I’m 40 so I ought to be growing up by now.” “I’m 50, best to have that mid-life crisis.” “65? Time to retire?”

Perhaps there’s a better way, though, when we start to live our lives as they are right now, as they are given to us in each moment — despite or in spite of the number. On the precipice of my own 43rd year, a year that denotes no particular monument, these are thoughts that cross my mind. 

This is my sermon on what it means to “kythe,” a necessary skill one builds for active listening in covenant groups, or any situation where it’s more important to open up one’s heart in empathy than it is to fix what’s gone wrong.  

Sometimes you find wisdom in the oddest places.

In the latest Bond film, there is a moment after the villain’s been foiled, after the car crashes, after America’s (arguably) favorite British spy has survived yet another global threat, where he and “M” (his boss) reflect on the morality of risk and regret. Bond asks M if she has any regrets, especially regarding mistakes she might have made in the course of fulfilling her duties to queen and country. She says: “Of course not, that would be unprofessional.”

In other words, it’s M’s job to take the risks, make the hard calls, even make the mistakes that are part and parcel of her position. Regret? No, that would be unprofessional. That would mean she’s not taking the risks she needs to take.

In Fleming’s book Goldfinger, Bond calls regret the “death-watch beetle in the soul.”

In our own lives, regret exacts a high toll. While remorse for one’s actions can be turned into reflection, redemption and reconciliation, regret just sits there like a bad fruitcake. You don’t want to eat it but you can’t turn it into anything useful. Life is filled with inevitable losses, mis-actions, and mistakes. In the coming year let us look together in all aspects of our lives – in our church life, in our personal connections, and with our community and global responsibilities – for those places where we are stuck in regret, and where a dose of action might move us and our world toward reconciliation.

Regret. Unprofessional. Unproductive. 

Enjoy the sermon. 

The subject of war seems to have been a continuous part of the human
condition.  Some religions have taken a strong pacifist and non-violent
stance.  Our Unitarian Universalist history has a more ambiguous response
to the subject of war and violence.  The author Chris Hedges has even
stated that War is a force that gives us meaning.  This sermon will
explore the various religious responses to war and how they can inform our
current response as a religious movement to the current wars and violence
still prevalent in our world.

[Just a note, the podcast begins about 10 seconds into the "file," so you'll have to wait briefly for it to start.]

The church’s successful stewardship drive is now over — but the message remains relevant.

Heinz Frommeyer: Piano
Steve Glaeser: Drums
Adam Booker: Bass
Morgan King: Saxophone

I would like to share a story about Devin Zimmerman, a member of my congregation who on Monday last was shot in his workplace by a co-worker. I delivered his eulogy this evening. This is a story I shared during that time, along with a slide show of our church grounds that Devin cared for. A slide show during a memorial service? Read on…

On just a couple of occasions Devin shared with me his thoughts about things as he saw them. I valued these opinions because I knew they were carefully considered and grounded in loving relationship. One evening, after a council meeting, he shared with me how we was struggling with my use of projections in worship. “It feels too much like a classroom for me,” he said. “I see Powerpoints all the time. Why do I have to see them in church?” He didn’t see how using technology added to the experience of worship. I took these words to heart and made changes to how we presented things (like making our projections less “Powerpointy”). I also learned something about Devin. He could offer a strongly felt opinion and then, in Buddhist fashion, work toward a middle ground, for about a month later, he came up to me and said he had a suggestion.

“One Sunday,” he said, “instead of the sermon why don’t you just project pictures of our beautiful campus, and let people sit in silence with them?” This revealed to me a person who had the capacity to be in true relationship with another, who could come to a conclusion about something, and then look at another’s point of view and see where there might be common ground. My projector. His flowers and trees.  

To honor Devin, I made his suggestion happen, and this evening we sat in silence for several minutes watching images of the plants he loved so much. The photographs were mostly taken by Devin. I took the ones at the end. I invite you to watch the slide show, perhaps in intentional silence, and remember that the greatest victory is sticking with love even when faced with hate and loss. 

Devin’s gardens

If the player below doesn’t work, click here to listen.

Now we ask, “When it is too soon to forgive?” As we begin this church year and look to the year ahead, “a year to remember” as my original sermon title suggested, what will we remember? — for this year will never be forgotten having begun with such heartache. I hope we remember it as the year we were able to forgive an unspeakable act of violence, a world gone mad with intolerance, even ourselves for the seeds of anger we posses. May this year be remembered because we forgave and found the courage to build again.

Listen to the entire sermon by following this link.

In the year of the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination, his words continue to ring true. We honor his legacy by working to restore justice for the people of the United States of America, and for the people of Iraq. Our service on April 13 was part of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee’s “Justice Sunday 2008.” In concert with hundreds of other UU congregations around the country, we lifted up how the war in Iraq has drained this nation’s resources, creating a humanitarian crisis in Iraq, and leaving a multitude needs at home unmet — including the disgraceful lack of resources and commitment to rebuild the Gulf Coast. Click here to listen. 

I will miss Sam. His immense heart and the way he embraced the whole of his experience have inspired me since I first met him last year. We are better people for having known this gentle soul with the intellect and inner strength of a titan. 

My sermon on what it means to “kythe,” a necessary skill one builds for active listening in covenant groups, or any situation where it’s more important to open up one’s heart in empathy than it is to fix what’s gone wrong. Perhaps Proginoskes, an angelic being of pure spirit, who sometimes spurts a little fire, says it best. This passage is from a Wind in the Door, by Madelein L’Engle:

Proginoskes looked at [young Meg] with two ringed, owl-like eyes. “You’re beginning to learn how to kythe.”
“To what?”
“Kythe. It’s how cherubim talk. It’s talking without words, just the same way that I can be myself and not enfleshed.”
“But I have to be enfleshed, and I need words.”
“I know, Meg,” he replied gently, and I will keep things worded for you. But it will help if you will remember that cherubim kythe without words among each other. For a human creature, you show a distinct talent for kything.”
“She blushed slightly at the compliment.”