Have you ever had the experience of putting on your winter coat for the first time since last season and finding money in the pocket? Or heard a story about someone buying something at a thrift store and finding money in it – an old book, the pocket of a pair of jeans, something like …
I borrow this series of questions from my colleague, Rev. Peter Boullata. You might also remember that I asked you these same questions about a year and a half ago when I preached about change and generational shifts. The need to speak on the phone in public persists. We just meet that need differently now. …
From Phone Booth to Cell Phone: Building the Next RE Program (sermon) Read More »
led at First Unitarian Society of Plainfield March 17, 2019 This afternoon’s ritual space is a lamentation, a condemnation, and rededication in the aftermath of the New Zealand tragedy on Friday where so many, too many, taking part in religious expression at two mosques halfway around the world from here, had their lives stolen by …
Ritual for Broken Times: After the New Zealand Massacre Read More »
Think about your personal experiences with the place beyond hope and fear. I’m certain there’ve been many times when you found yourself stepping forward without hesitation. Something in the situation called you into spontaneous action without calculating costs and benefits. This is the definition of courage—actions that spring from an open heart without premeditation. (The …
“Herein the afterlife, everything exists in all possible states at once, even states that are mutually exclusive. This comes as a shock after your Earthly life, where making one choice causes the other choices to disappear.” So begins the short story titled “Quantum” in the David Eagleman’s book called, Sum: forty tales from the afterlives. …
October 18, 2018 It is time to remember them. Harriet Susan Mary Augustus Simon and Margaret – who were both already free Not fictional characters. People with real lives: deceived, stolen, sold back into slavery, removed to a place with no promise of emancipation. Real people, with real lives, and real names: Sarah George Moses …
Lost Souls Public Comment to Middlesex County Freeholders Read More »
The Unitarian Society East Brunwick, NJ Reverend Karen G. Johnston Time for All Ages was the story of the change in title of the Jason Shelton hymn from Standing on the Side of Love to Answering the Call of Love to be more inclusive of all the bodies we humans have. What if we were …
The Unitarian Society, East Brunswick, NJ November 5, 2017 Part I: faith&doubt Sister Simone Campbell, the 2014 Ware Lecturer at our own General Assembly, known as one of the Nuns on the Bus, spoke in that lecture about how essential doubt is to faith, for without doubt, faith becomes something altogether else: it becomes …
I Believe. Help My Unbelief. (sermon in three parts)) Read More »
The Unitarian Society, East Brunswick, New Jersey And the table will be wide. And the welcome will be wide. And the arms will open wide to gather us in. We are fortunate that here in New Jersey: more protections for the rights and safety of transgender folks have been enacted. In fact, just a few months ago, …
And the Welcome Will Be Wide: It’s Not About the Bathrooms (sermon) Read More »
I’m pretty sure no one calls New Jersey a wilderness, but given that it will be new to me, given that it will be my personal next Unknown, at least for awhile, this piece of wisdom from beloved Wendell Berry has caught my attention: By the time this is posted, I will haven driven away …