This is my annual every-member canvass sermon and it is unapologetically about money. Did you hear about the two guys on the desert island? As soon as they were stranded one of them began to gather food and materials to build a hut, preparing for the long haul. The other took a swim, laid back […]

I want to continue to dig into our roots. This involves a discussion of our Unitarian Universalist beginnings in America, our heritage in Transylvania, and other historical roots, but it necessarily includes a look into the roots of our faith system from a philosophical and/or theological point of view. Whitman, in his signature piece, Song […]

Opening Words Joseph Campbell told a story about a time he was in Japan for an international conference on religion. He overheard another American delegate, a social philosopher from New York, say to a Shinto priest, “We’ve been now to a good many ceremonies and have seen quite a few of your shrines. But I […]

Reading from: Jew vs. Jew: The Struggle for the Soul of American Jewry, by Samuel G. Freedman The Destruction of the Second Temple In the first century of the Common Era, as the Roman Empire reigned over Judea, the tiny nation rose in revolt. For several years Jewish revolutionaries drove mighty Rome into retreat, seating […]

Opening Words from Pablo Casals, in honor of our service of Dedication of Parents and Children: When one looks about at the miraculous diversity of our universe—at the miraculous world that each person, each tree, each leaf is—how can one help but believe in something greater than oneself, something that cannot be described, cannot be […]

Opening words Genesis 1:1-5 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light,’; and there was light. And […]

This is election season. The bumper stickers are popping up. I had a nice chuckle when I read one the other day: “Read my lips, no new Texans.” Then there’s the debates about the debates. God forbid you have one near the Kennedy Library…or the Lincoln Tunnel, giving unfair advantage to one party or the […]

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 […]