The various traditions and lineages of Buddhism disagree with one another as much as the different branches of Christianity do (or, for that matter, people who understand Unitarian Universalism differently).  These various traditions and lineages do share many common teachings, of course.  One of these is that all Buddhists — from no matter what specific […]

This morning I’d like us to explore two ideas:  marginalized community, and beloved community.  We hear both of these terms a fair bit, yet with one of them we have all too many examples to look to, and the other nowhere near far enough.  When I studied philosophy in college I learned that it’s really important to begin […]

Ganesh and Blessings for New Beginnings OPENING When I was in college, I spent four months in Sri Lanka, which is a country on the other side of the world, near India.  I lived with a family there.  One day, we were setting out on a trip.  As we left town, we stopped by a statue at the […]

Water is pretty awesome. 50% – 60% of the human body is made up of water.  Did you know that?  50% – 60%.  And some 75% — ¾ — of the earth’s surface is covered in water.  (Some people say we shouldn’t call our planet “Earth;” we should have called it, “Water.”)  Life on this planet, at least, began in […]

Her marriage had imploded, leaving her a divorced, single mother, dependent on welfare to get her from day-to-day.  She was severely depressed, and things felt so bad to her that she considered suicide.  To make matters worse, perhaps, she also was an aspiring author.  She said ever since she had learned what a writer was, she wanted to be […]

Elwyn Brooks White, better known as E. B. White, may be best known as the author of Charlotte’sWeb and Stuart Little, or, by people of a certain age, the co-author of a little volume often called Strunk & White or, more accurately The Elements of Style.  (Some people shudder at the memory of it; others delight in its clarity and decisiveness.  Most are […]

I find it very good news that Love Knocks and Waits for Us to Hear. We need that at times like this. Here we are, on the morning of August 12, 2018. We look back. We pause for a moment here. We go forward. We humans, throughout history, have needed Love again and again when […]

It was 7:00 am on August 7th, 44 year’s ago. A young man, one week shy of his 25th birthday,  stood with one foot on the edge of a building, and the other foot on a steel cable ¾ of an inch in diameter. The man was French wire walker Philippe Petit; the building was the south […]

Opening Words: As a people—a people of faith—that say we are committed to justice, compassion, and equity. As a faith that says we are committed to the inherent worth and dignity of all people. As a faith that says we are committed to respect for the interdependent web of all life—we have a critical role […]

Opening Words: It is common in a great many Unitarian Universalist congregations for the settled preacher to offer what’s often called a “Question Box Sermon” – congregants write questions on index cards, which are then collected and which the preacher does her best to answer.  I first encountered this practice in our congregation in Yarmouth, […]