On Sunday, September 10, 2017, the congregation I serve celebrated its annual Balloon Sunday.  We heard the story we called “Grandmother’s Courage,” and my reflections were an exploration of its message.  (Although the story is not included in this post, I think the lessons are clear even without knowing it.) In seminary I was taught […]

I have always loved the story Leia just read.  I first heard it years and years ago, and it touched me then.  All these years later it continues to move me. One of the reasons I so love that story is because I am that pot with a crack in it.  I know only two […]

Preaching: Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr. We fall down and sometimes we are born down. In the history of life’s leaders, life’s transformers is to get up and see beyond the predicament. On the isle of Patmos, left to die, John saw a new heaven, a new earth beyond his predicament. Jefferson saw a way […]

A few weeks back I quietly celebrated one of the high holy days, if you will, of my own, personal liturgical calendar.  August 8 marks the anniversary of an event that took place in 1974 –  a young, French wire walker named Phillipe Petit strung a cable between the north and south towers of the World Trade […]

(I have been asked for a text of the words I spoke this morning. Because I had prepared with handwritten notes, what you find below is a restatement of what I said this morning but might be worded differently. Please forgive lack of punctuation and typos – my computer is in the shop and so […]

August 6:  Give Them Not Hell The 18th century Universalist, John Murray, is remembered as saying, “Go out into the highways and by-ways of America, your new country . . . [and] give them not hell, but hope and courage.”  He may not, in fact, have ever said this, but there is no question that […]

During the summer worship often takes on a more relaxed feel — we have only the one service at 10:00, and it’s a time for different voices in the pulpit.  On the 2nd, Rev. Wik will preach, and on the 9th it will be Rev Alex’s turn.  Sunday the 16th the preacher will be one […]

Augustine of Hippo once wrote, “Hope has two beautiful daughters – Anger and Courage.  Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they don’t remain as they are.”  There’s a lot to unpack in that, and a lot for us to learn.  Rev. Wik will preach. NOTE: The church office will be closed […]

“I have never been able to accept what I believe to be an injustice. Perhaps it is because of this I am America’s problem child …” “America’s problem child.”  That’s the way – one of the ways – that the Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray saw herself … and not without some reason.  Pauli was one […]

“Rural Voices” Good morning.  The sermon topic that was advertised for this morning was about chapters of life and how to live in a spiritually full way at each stage.  I realized over the last few days that Erik covered that somewhat last week and I covered it in my April sermon.  So, I decided […]