tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-274229562024-03-13T12:10:39.367-04:00A Minister's Musings"We are one human family, on one fragile planet,
in one miraculous universe, bound by love."RevWikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15321110320262267203noreply@blogger.comBlogger513125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27422956.post-19450575743764116982020-05-30T14:51:00.002-04:002020-05-30T14:51:48.584-04:00What the hell is happening?
It’s been a while since the last time I posted anything here. Lots of things have happened that were worthy of reflection and commentary ... and thank goodness there are wiser folks than I who’ve kept up that work! Still, as the Walrus famously said, “the time has come [...] to talk of many things.”
The big news recently has been the rioting, the violence and the destruction, RevWikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15321110320262267203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27422956.post-90473264920074287592019-07-01T13:46:00.000-04:002019-07-01T13:49:25.769-04:00It's Almost EnoughThis is the text of the Reflections I offered on Sunday, June 30, 2019 to the congregation I have served for the past 8 years. It is the last Reflection I will offer as their Lead Minister. It is also quite possibly the last sermon I will offer for quite some time, because I do not expect to seek out another pastorate. Beginning in September I will become a student again as a RevWikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15321110320262267203noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27422956.post-43171948977772984762019-06-25T16:17:00.003-04:002019-06-25T16:17:33.453-04:00The Need for ChangeThere is a struggle going on right now for the heart and soul of the faith tradition I serve. Actually, I believe that the "heart and soul" of the faith is safe and well, but the institutional expression of that faith, the Unitarian Universalist Association of Affiliated Congregations, is struggling with how to live in to our stated commitment of becoming a truly anti-racist, RevWikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15321110320262267203noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27422956.post-73503694698540816302019-06-17T12:16:00.003-04:002019-06-17T12:16:26.706-04:00Leave It ... You're FineThis is the text of the reflection I offered on Sunday, June 16, 2019 to the congregation I serve in Charlottesville, Virginia.
A woman is doing some painting in her kitchen. She bumps into a small table and then, in that horrified slow motion way, watches as the jar of paint falls off. When it hits the floor the jar shatters, paint spray hits the wall, and a mess of bright blue RevWikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15321110320262267203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27422956.post-66846336437116876062019-06-06T20:01:00.002-04:002019-06-06T20:01:47.581-04:00It’s Time For a ChangeI submitted the following Letter to the Editor in response to the article in The Daily Progress on Wednesday, June 5, 2019, “City considers nixing Jefferson’s birthday observation.”
I want to thank Mayor Walker for proposing that we stop celebrating Thomas Jefferson's birthday in April, but, instead, make a holiday of Liberation and Freedom Day in March. Undeniably Jefferson played a RevWikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15321110320262267203noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27422956.post-22151279385376064472019-06-03T12:36:00.000-04:002019-06-03T12:36:46.478-04:00Crossing Over
This is the text of the reflections I offered on Sunday, June 2, 2019 at the congregation I serve in Charlottesville, Virginia. This was the Sunday of our annual Bridging Ceremony, the uniquely Unitarian Universalist rite of passage from "youth" to "young adult." It might be worth noting that these words were illustrated by project images. (I've put the images at the RevWikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15321110320262267203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27422956.post-40945978795281920572019-05-28T15:51:00.000-04:002019-05-28T15:51:45.568-04:00The Cost of Freedom
This is the text of the reflections I offered on Sunday, May 26, 2019 to the congregation I serve in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Every
year until his death in 2012, Senator Daniel Inouye introduced legislation to
change the date of Memorial Day from what it is now, the last Monday in May,
back to what it had been before, May 30th (regardless of what day
that fell on in any given year). RevWikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15321110320262267203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27422956.post-65772936419821760702019-05-24T18:26:00.000-04:002019-05-24T18:26:10.894-04:00Reflections on a Ministry
This is the letter I sent to the members (both formal and informal) of the congregation I serve regarding my decision to end our mutual ministry as of the end of this church year (June 30th). If you're interested, you can read the formal announcement to the congregation, as well as the reflections I offered the Sunday after the congregation was informed.
To the people of TJMC, the RevWikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15321110320262267203noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27422956.post-47673164688300488162019-05-20T09:00:00.000-04:002019-05-20T12:39:59.799-04:00Let's Not Keep From SingingThese are the reflections I offered to the congregation I serve on Sunday, May 19, 2019. They had just a few days earlier received the news of my decision to bring our eight-year mutual ministry to an end, as well as the decision of our Director of Administration and Finance, Christina Rivera, to resign. This was my first opportunity to talk with them after they received the news.
InRevWikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15321110320262267203noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27422956.post-67913228517439087812019-05-06T11:24:00.004-04:002019-05-06T11:24:59.929-04:00On Justice, Truth, and Peace
This is the text of the reflections I offered on Sunday, May 5, 2019 in the congregation I serve here in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Rabban Simeon ben Gamliel whose words are at the heart of the piece the choir just sang, was a Jewish sage and leader who lived a little less than 2,100 years ago. Rav Muna, the other rabbi quoted in the choral piece, was one of the two rabbi who edited an earlyRevWikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15321110320262267203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27422956.post-48395814827243231442019-05-01T07:25:00.002-04:002019-05-01T07:25:37.838-04:00What Makes a Memorial?I wrote this in response to the article “Judge: Statues are war memorials” that was published in the Daily Progress on Tuesday, April 30th, 2019
Judge Richard E. Moore has determined that the statues of Lee and Jackson are, in fact, war memorials, and as such are protected. “It does no good,” he wrote, “pretending they are something other than what they actually are.” As RevWikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15321110320262267203noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27422956.post-6276744432642637542019-04-26T09:00:00.000-04:002019-04-26T09:00:12.040-04:00A Review of AFTER THE GOOD NEWS
I recently had the privilege (and good fortune) of being asked to read and review the Rev. Nancy McDonald Ladd's new book, After the Good News: progressive faith beyond optimism (Skinner House Books). I was going to read it anyway -- Nancy is one of my favorite Unitarian Universalist writers -- so I was excited to know even before I'd even started I had already been RevWikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15321110320262267203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27422956.post-37340875374656863242019-04-22T12:51:00.000-04:002019-04-22T12:51:24.746-04:00A Rite of Spring
"The question is not whether we believe in resurrection
but whether we have known it --
known it in our own lived experience,
seen it in the lives of others,
felt it in the world around us."
For the last two decades or so, on the Sunday the majority of Christians celebrate Easter, every congregation I have served has held a service titled, "A Rite of Spring: RevWikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15321110320262267203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27422956.post-50193652390380581212019-04-08T13:01:00.001-04:002019-04-08T13:01:34.225-04:00The Inevitability of VictoryThis is the text of the reflection I offered on Sunday, April 7, 2019 at the congregation I serve in Charlottesville, Virginia.
It was just after 6:00 in the evening on Thursday, April 4th.* The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had arrived in Memphis just the day before. His plane out of Atlanta had been delayed because of a bomb threat, but he’d made it there in time to speak as RevWikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15321110320262267203noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27422956.post-77233356482311489502019-03-25T12:18:00.001-04:002019-03-25T12:18:20.949-04:00Why Am I Sitting Here?This is the text of the reflections I offered at the congregation I serve in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Sunday, March 24, 2019.
There is a story in the Hebrew Scriptures about a man named Nehemiah. You might be expecting me to tell the story of Queen Esther and how she outed herself as Jewish just after the King declared his intention to exterminate all of the Jews in his RevWikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15321110320262267203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27422956.post-89003096078784739522019-03-22T14:49:00.001-04:002019-03-22T14:50:17.013-04:00We Can't Resist What We Refuse To AcknowledgeThis week both Charlottesville and Albemarle High Schools were the target of online threats. Parents were notified that the schools were taking precautions to keep our kids safe. A spokeswoman for the city schools, "acknowledge[d] and condemn[ed] the fact that this threat was racially charged." "Racially charged" does not begin to capture the truly heinous nature of the threat.
RevWikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15321110320262267203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27422956.post-90723561715825304412019-03-18T10:48:00.002-04:002019-03-18T10:48:23.354-04:00Be Here Our GuestThis is the text of the reflection I offered on Sunday, March 18th, 2019 at the congregation I serve in Charlottesville, Virginia.
What makes you feel at home? What makes you feel welcome? That's not a rhetorical question. Really ... what makes you feel welcome and at home?
I read an article this week in which the author pondered this question. She came to the RevWikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15321110320262267203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27422956.post-49405211696194608142019-03-06T15:01:00.000-05:002019-03-06T15:02:30.126-05:00The Science Fiction of Social Justice
This past Sunday, during the first service, I realized that I needed to trim my reflections before going in to the second. The proverbial "cutting room floor" is often home to passages that, for one reason or another, were important or intriguing enough to include yet, ultimately, are not enough of either of those things to remain in the final draft. Thus it always is for writers.
RevWikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15321110320262267203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27422956.post-48738861854316671492019-03-04T13:18:00.000-05:002019-03-04T13:18:31.811-05:00I Dream a WorldThis is the text of the reflections I offered on Sunday, March 3, 2018, to the congregation I serve in Charlottesville, Virginia. The Opening and Closing readings were the incredible "Let America Be America Again!" by the incomparable Langston Hughes.
Langston Hughes wrote “I Dream a World” in 1929. 34 years before the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. famously talked about his RevWikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15321110320262267203noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27422956.post-5726999316344877032019-02-21T09:51:00.000-05:002019-02-21T09:51:47.482-05:00GraceThis is the text of the reflections I offered to the congregation I serve in Charlottesville, Virginia on Sunday, February 17, 2019.
The choir just sang what is easily one of the most recognizable hymns ever composed. (And the arrangement was by our own Scott DeVeaux.) “Amazing Grace” was written in the mid-1700s by a preacher named John Newton. As a young man Newton served RevWikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15321110320262267203noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27422956.post-55169777148531666602019-02-11T11:02:00.000-05:002019-02-11T11:02:47.127-05:00Rice Balls, Noodles, Fireworks, and Dragons
This is the text of the Reflections I offered on Sunday, February 10, 2019 to the congregation I serve in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Whether we call it “Chinese New
Year,” the “Spring Festival,” or the “Lunar Festival,” this major Chinese
celebration (which began this past Tuesday and will continue on through a week
from this coming Wednesday) is a really, really big deal. It’s RevWikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15321110320262267203noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27422956.post-68083957282809424372019-02-04T12:27:00.003-05:002019-02-04T12:28:45.408-05:00Fear Never Fixed AnythingThis is the text of the reflection I offered on February 3, 2019, to the congregation I serve in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Sam Keen is, as I said during the Story time, a fairly well-known author within a certain niche of readers. He’s written books like, Your Mythic Journey, Fire in the Belly, Inward Bound (exploring the geography of your emotions), To a Dancing God, and TheRevWikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15321110320262267203noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27422956.post-80363022641352103672018-11-05T15:35:00.001-05:002018-11-05T15:35:18.493-05:00What Grounds Us?
This is the text of the reflections I offered on Sunday, November 4, 2018, to the congregation I serve in Charlottesville, Virginia. Sort of. I preached from notes, so this is my best reconstruction of what I'd said. (In places I'm sure this reflects more what I wish I'd said!)
In Yarmouth, Maine the area clergy would get together once a month for lunch. At least RevWikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15321110320262267203noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27422956.post-2033908064458727032018-10-24T11:00:00.001-04:002018-10-24T11:00:02.968-04:00Leaves. Branches, Trunk, and RootsThis is the text of the reflections I offered at the congregation I serve in Charlottesville, Virginia on Sunday, October 21, 2018
You can find it in the myths and folklore of pretty much all Mesoamerican cultures; it shows up in lot's of other cultures, too. Hungarians called it, “égig érő fa,” the Sky-High Tree, and “életfa,” the Tree of Life. To the Norse it was, “RevWikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15321110320262267203noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27422956.post-75460432396860314012018-10-10T10:52:00.002-04:002018-10-10T10:52:38.484-04:00Eve Was Framed
Artist Unknown
This is the text of the reflections I offered on Sunday, October 7, 2018 at the congregation I serve in Charlottesville, Virginia.
There’s a joke I’ve always loved, but always have to look up to make sure I get it right. When I looked it up (again) this week I discovered that in a 2005 poll in the UK it had been voted the funniest religious joke:
RevWikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15321110320262267203noreply@blogger.com0