The first rule of writing is: “Write what you know.” What should be the first rule of preaching? If preaching were limited to what we know sermons would be shorter, for sure. But they would be less interesting, less challenging. The first rule of preaching is, “Preach that with which you are struggling.” What makes […]

  The story: In 1978 TIME magazine did a story on the Pope’s silencing of Hans Kung. The Vatican had accused Kung of promoting the Unitarian heresy. Kung had suggested that the idea of the Trinity should not be taken literally, that Jesus was fully human, a man, not God. Kung favorably quoted another Roman Catholic […]

Reading: The Road to Emmaus There’s a story in the Gospel of Luke about two of Jesus’s followers who were walking along the road to Emmaus just after the crucifixion: “That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all […]

The quality of our lives depends on lots of things over which we have little or no control: where we’re born, and to whom we are born, our genetic makeup…where lightning strikes or our proximity to an erupting volcano, or a string of numbers on a lottery ticket. We may be born to parents who […]

When we’re young we long to be older. We look forward to things, looking into the future with a youthful sense of hopefulness, anticipation, excitement. The future holds so many opportunities. I especially remember looking forward to my 16th birthday—then I could get my coveted driver’s license! Before that birthday I had already bought my […]

Readings — from The People, Yes, by Carl Sandburg: “So you want to divide all the money there is and give every man his share?” “that’s it. Put it all in one big pile and split it even for everybody.” “and the land, the gold, silver, oil, copper, you want that divided up?” “Sure — […]

 Reading: From Albert Camus, in his acceptance speech upon being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, December 10, 1957 Probably every generation sees itself as charged with remaking the world. Mine, however, knows it will not remake the world. But its task is perhaps even greater, for it consists in keeping the world from destroying […]

I’ve been thinking about the first sermon I delivered from this pulpit. It was our introduction to one another, at the beginning of candidating week, March 25, 1984. Candidating week involves two sermons; one at the start of the week, and one at the other end, after meeting with committees and as many people as […]

 When I was in graduate school I had a course in Social Foundations of Education, and was assigned to write a paper and give an oral report on the basics of Buddhism. That was 35 years ago. At the end of my comments to the class I said, “I think I’m a Buddhist.” I’ve never […]

Reading: The Madman; Kahlil Gibran “You ask me how I became a madman. It happened thus: One day, long before many gods were born, I woke from a deep sleep and found all my masks were stolen, the seven masks I have fashioned and worn in seven lives. I ran maskless through the streets shouting, […]