“When everything else has gone from my brain,” writes Annie Dillard in the preface to her memoir, An American Childhood; “When everything else has gone from my brain,” what will be left, I believe is topology: the dreaming memory of land as it lay this way or that.” Dillard is talking about Pittsburgh, a [...]
I was in Canton, Mass., yesterday, for the installation ceremony for their minister, Diane Teichert. As a matter of fact, I gave the installation sermon, just as I am going to give the sermon next Sunday in Lexington for the ordination of Rebecca Cohen, while Kimi will give the charge to the minister and all [...]
Ours is a movement that has long been closely associated with a love
of nature, a respect for the planet’s rhythms and life forms, a reverence for
life (as Albert Schweitzer put it), and a sense of responsibility for the care of
our earthly home.
Newcomers who are just getting to know Unitarian Universalism may
not have guessed that from [...]
“My life flows on in endless song
above earth’s lamentation.
I hear the real though far-off hymn
that hails a new creation.
Through all the tumult and the strife
I hear the music ringing.
It sounds an echo in my soul.
How can I keep from singing?”
The preceding lyrics are from one of my favorite hymns: #108, “My Life Flows On [...]
I had occasion this past week to address a group of theological school students about sermonic form. It is a subject that has taken up many a chapter of many a textbook over the years, but in my opinion, rarely done better than in 1944, the very year of my birth, by a very wise [...]
Requested and Sponsored by Brownie ParkerThe Bible is a sort of anthology. The word “Bible” comes from an ancient Greek word meaning a collection of little books. There are several sorts of books in the collection. Early on are books of legends, law, and history. Later come books about the social reformers known as the [...]
I figure, about half of you took one look at this morning’s sermon title and could surmise, well of course, Ken couldn’t resist returning to that reading he used a month ago, now that the canvass is here, the church’s annual attempt to muster the financial support needed to keep itself going and growing. [...]
STORY FOR ALL AGES:
The story of Muhammad as told by Kimi Riegel [1]
Muhammad was the founder of the Islamic religion. The followers of Jesus founded Christianity. Moses and Abraham were very important to the Jewish tradition. Buddha was the founder of the Buddhist faith. As Unitarian Universalists we believe in learning from all the world’s [...]
In some ways, this morning’s sermon follows from the sermon I gave here last week, but don’t worry, you don’t have to have been here for that one. I will tell you, it was an acknowledgment and even a celebration of the fact that ours is a religion that expects and accepts change, uncertainty, [...]
Here is a scene that may be some familiar to some of you. You’re having lunch with a colleague at work, or you’re chatting with your brother-in-law after a wedding, or you’re killing time before a concert with an old friend from high school – in every case, with someone you know well enough [...]
READING
“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a [...]
“In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the Word was god. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him and without him nothing came into being.”[1] That’s the way the Gospel of John starts - with the word. This message is still an [...]