Delivered April 21, 2019 at First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church of Kennebunk. Earlier in the service, we read The Cloud Spinner by Michael Catchpool. All stories are true. Some of them even happened. The Gospel of Mark tells us that “when the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome […]
Category: Sermons
See the Whole Board
Delivered April 15, 2019 at First Parish UU Church of Kennebunk, ME Reading Matthew 21:1-11 (NRSV) When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a […]
Be Subject to One Another
Note: The original sermon, delivered at the West Wing Weekend on September 27, 2018, may be seen here; it includes multiple references to the show. The sermon below was delivered with the title “T.H.I.N.K” at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Oneonta, NY on October 28, 2018. How many of you grew up watching Mister Rogers […]
The Blessing of One Voice
(Click here to listen – as delivered at the UU Congregation of Saratoga Springs, NY – thanks to soloists Nancy Kass and Laurie Singer) Fans of the TV show The West Wing are familiar with character President Josiah Bartlet, played by Martin Sheen. President Bartlet is smart as a whip, deeply religious, and a gregarious […]
The Courage to Covenant
(As delivered on May 6, 2018, at the UU Fellowship of Bennington, VT) Reading “A Ritual to Read to Each Other” by William Stafford If you don’t know the kind of person I am and I don’t know the kind of person you are a pattern that others made may prevail in the world and […]
Simply Pray
Click to listen here (as delivered in Nantucket on March 18, 2018) Let us pray. Now… some of you instantly bowed your head a bit, maybe you closed your eyes. Perhaps you took in a deep breath as you waited to hear how I started the prayer and to whom I addressed it. Others of […]
Transmogrified
Click to listen here (as delivered in Nantucket on February 18, 2018). I first learned the word “transmogrified” from Calvin and Hobbes. You may remember the comic strip by Bill Waterston, which ran from 1985 to 1995. Calvin, aged 6, was part Christopher Robin and part Dennis the Menace, and his stuffed tiger, Hobbes, regularly […]
Reclaiming My Time
Note: An earlier version of this sermon was delivered in Mt Kisco, NY, on October 8, 2018. Shortly after that service, accusations of sexual harassment against Harvey Weinstein and others spawned the #metoo movement, and the sermon had to be rewritten to address the new awareness. Listen to this new version, as delivered in Nantucket […]
Crazy Wisdom
Humor is a funny thing, isn’t it? Sorry – couldn’t resist. But consider what has happened in this room. I began our service with some troubling news about our institution, with a seriousness about our denomination’s ability to walk the talk when it comes to anti-racism and anti-oppression work. And then I told a funny […]
Give Them Not Hell
A Time for All Ages John Murray and The Winds of Change by Christy Olson and Jessica York Sermon True or false: In April of 1775, Paul Revere rode through the streets from Boston to Lexington yelling “The British Are Coming”. True or false: The Declaration of Independence was signed by everyone on July 4, […]
Shifting the Narrative
Back in the mid 1980s, I moved to North Carolina. Now if you’ve ever lived in North Carolina, you know that the most important question is not “what’s your name” or “what do you do for a living” – it’s “What college basketball team do you support?” Because my friends were graduates of NC State […]
Holey, Holy, Wholly
Click here to listen to this sermon as delivered in Nantucket on March 4, 2018. People find wisdom in a variety of places – folk tales, sacred texts, nature, the words of prophetic people, music. I add to that list popular culture – specifically, movies and tv shows – in particular, those I find well […]
Scoundrels
This is not the sermon I had planned to deliver today. My plan was much more light hearted – talking about some of our most prized notables in our Unitarian Universalist history and their scoundrel nature – the mean nurse, the secessionist senator, the huckster showman, the tattletale pastor, the murderous daughter, the philandering minister. […]
At Sixes and Sevens
I love words – I am always on the lookout for a particularly elegant word or turn of phrase, and I like being able to use words well. So it sets my teeth on edge when I am unable to find the right word for something. I search and search my brain, but the word […]
The Greatest Story Ever Told
When I was a kid, along with A Charlie Brown Christmas, Frosty the Snowman, and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the TV lineup would include the movie The Greatest Story Ever Told. It wasn’t my favorite of these sweeping Hollywood Bible epics – I much preferred the big arms of Charlton Heston in the Ten Commandments or […]