You know how on your street there are people who belong to many different
religions? Well, maybe you don’t know that. It’s not like people paint their houses
different colors depending on their religion, so Catholics live in yellow houses and
Unitarian Universalists live in purple ones.
But unless there’s something unusual about your street, the people who live [...]
I have served as minister here for just over thirty years. As on my twentieth and twenty fifth
anniversaries, the church’s Ministerial Relations Committee [Ann Ross, Bill Jacques, and
Jennifer Barron] wanted to take note of the occasion with a present and an event. The present is a trip that my wife Carol and I will take [...]
Not that anyone asked, but my favorite radio show is “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell
Me.” Not long ago the panelists were asked multiple-choice questions about a television
evangelist who had just died. One required that they guess which of three fund-raising
tactics the man had employed on his show. The correct answer was, when money was
not coming in [...]
We’ve moved the preaching schedule around a little, and so here I am in the pulpit this week when you might have expected otherwise. It gives me a second chance to have something to say about Intelligent Design. You see, I thought I would preach on it last week, but by mid-week I [...]
Every few years I get to talking about the history of this old church we call the
First Parish, usually with the help of our church archivists and others, including some
folks who have been around to witness events here for a long time. They’re going to help
me again in a month, on March 20, when we’re [...]
The Prayer: In Memorium
Let us reclaim that tradition of remembering those who have died.
Please, center yourself within for a few moments.
Push aside the persistent issues of day-to-day living.
Be aware of the core, the heart of things within you.
Unveil there the memories of those you have loved who have died.
Find the joy of those memories and [...]
The question of evil is one that has perplexed humans forever. In our time the
ponderings and the study continue. I have considered the theme myself in the pulpit, many have tested it, others have tried to describe it, and the great and the humble alike have given it form.
Philip Hallie is one of those who [...]
This is, of course, the Sunday in the extended holiday weekend for Martin Luther
King Day tomorrow. And so we are singing hymns like “Precious Lord, Take My
Hand,” as unusual as the theology may be from our usual fare, and “We Shall
Overcome” — hymns from the heritage of black America that King’s memory
invokes. I want to [...]
This year, New Years festivities everywhere were less festive, coming as they did
so soon after the somber, almost unimaginably awful news from Southeast Asia.
I planned this day to talk about hospitality, and I will, but I’m going to get there
by way of the catastrophe and its aftermath, with some theologizing along the way, this
being church, [...]