The central symbol of Christianity is the cross- a means of torture and execution used by the Romans to terrorize the Jewish population. Christians turned it into a symbol of hope for millions of people who see deeper meanings in the symbol. My grandmother used to say, “Everyone has a cross to bear.” It helped […]

Emerson said, “If I know your party I anticipate your argument.” When I see another Jesus book I generally avoid it. But the title of a Jesus book by Bruce Chilton, Rabbi Jesus, caught my eye last spring, so I read the review in the Times- you can’t judge a book by its title- and […]

Opening Words: Morning Poem, by Mary Oliver Every morning the world is created. Under the orange sticks of the sun the heaped ashes of the night turn into leaves again and fasten themselves to the high branches–and ponds appear like black cloth on which are painted islands of summer lilies. If it is in your […]

This is the last word from this pulpit for this difficult year, which ends tomorrow. It’s a big responsibility- having the last word at the end of this particular year. Maybe you should have the last word? I got thinking about the idea of ‘the last word.’ For example, King Henry VIII had the last […]

“Consider a man riding a bicycle. Whoever he is, we can say three things about him. We know he got on the bicycle and started to move. We know that at some point he will stop and get off. Most important of all, we know that if at any point between the beginning and the […]

Opening Words In his wonderful, sensitive little poem, The Pasture, Robert Frost offers a call to worship…an invitation to go into the deeper places of the mind and heart to clear away the accumulated debris; an invitation to go down into the depths of the soul and understand more clearly the source of love and […]

First, let’s look again at the words to the old Shaker hymn. In Shaker worship there were no written prayers, no liturgy-it was characterized by spontaneity. Everything about the Shakers was distinctively simple, unornamented, functional. Shaker furniture is known for its finely crafted style of simplicity. Shakers took a vow of celibacy-a simple answer to […]

We recently looked at one of the important persons–prophet, if you will–on the Universalist side of our Unitarian Universalist heritage: John Murray. He preached a doctrine of universal salvation, saying, “Give them not hell but hope and courage.” Murray fled his native England after his house was burned to the ground by religious terrorists who […]

Opening Reading THE ROAD NOT TAKEN, Robert Frost Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other as just as fair, And having […]

Opening Words: “Lost” David Wagoner Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here. And you must treat it as a powerful stranger, Must ask permission to know it and be known. The forest breathes. Listen. It answers, I have made this place around you, If […]