Rev. Frank Hall Services Archive

Emerson provides the text for this sermon, which is my response to Mel Gibson’s controversial film, The Passion of the Christ: “Truly speaking, it is not instruction, but provocation, that I can receive from another soul.” No matter what else you may think or say about the film, it is provocative. Indeed, it has stirred […]

(originally scheduled for January 18, but was postponed due to snow.) I want to offer some comments ‘in praise of Christianity.’ It was the religion of my birth and boyhood, and I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to the ministers and Sunday school teachers who introduced me to Jesus, whose name is synonymous with […]

We begin with a question: “Are you happy?” In typical rabbinic fashion you answer with a question: “Well, what do you mean by happy?” Do you mean, “Am I content? Satisfied? Cheerful? Optimistic? Positive? Grateful?” ‘Happy’ is a funny word, like one of those little smiley faces. It is rooted in the verb ‘to happen,’ […]

In a letter to her husband, John, who was in Philadelphia, helping to give birth to a new nation in 1775, Abigail Adams wrote, “In the new code of laws which you will make I desire you to remember the Ladies. Do not put unlimited power in the hands of the husbands. Remember all men […]

Opening reading: Fire Logs, by Carl Sandburg Nancy Hanks dreams by the fire; Dreams, and the logs sputter, And the yellow tongues climb. Red lines lick their way in flickers. Oh, sputter, logs. Oh, dream, Nancy. Time now for a beautiful child. Time now for a tall man to come. Preface: welcoming comments to seventh […]

Opening Words, by Lucille Clifton i am running into a new year and the old years blow back like a wind that i catch in my hair like strong fingers like all my old promises and it will be hard to let go of what i said to myself about myself when I was sixteen […]

When you stop to think about it, or more importantly, when you start to feel about it-to ‘get’ the deeper human meanings, it’s a wonderful story the ancient story of the birth of the Christ child in a stable, in a manger-the eating trough of the animals. This is a marvelous mythology, the truth of […]

 Opening Words by Mary Oliver: Morning Poem 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 the ponds appear like black cloth On which are painted islands of summer lilies. If it is […]

George Bernard Shaw said, “My method is to take the utmost trouble to find the right thing to say, and then to say it with the utmost levity.” I’ve taken the utmost trouble to put together some comments about a difficult subject, divorce. When I say ‘the utmost trouble’ I mean that the more I […]

  It’s time to talk about money matters. It’s time to talk about money, because money matters. What’s your earliest memory of money? How healthy is your relationship to money? (During the sermon delivery several people responded ‘out loud.’ They said: ” I remember getting an allowance of ten cents a week.I remember being able […]