Out of the darkness, light. Out of the light, warmth. Out of the warmth, joy. Out of the joy, togetherness. May this flame hold us for the time we are here with one another.

Now has come hard winter, With whip of wind and slash of snow and the diamond-bright stars in the black ice of the heavens. Just as we resist the season with shovel and scraper, wool and windbreaker, we embrace it with sled and snowboard, cocoa and comforter. Winter is here: let us find warmth in...

It's in one tiny moment in time / for life to shine to shine Burn away the darkness You've got one tiny moment in time / for life to shine to shine To burn away the darkness I will be light. — “I Will Be Light” by Matisyahu About six months ago, I got a new tattoo. It’s a lit match on my...

How does it happen? this transformation....

Would you be with me in a spirit of meditation, reflection, and prayer. Friends, it has been another challenging week in our world. I want to invite us to start with some silence, time to reconnect with our breath and reground ourselves. Let’s be in silence together. Silence... ring bell. This...

Blessed are the homeless and those who beg for spare change, for they will inherit the house of the Lord. Blessed are the black mothers who lament the deaths of their sons at the hands of the state, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex,...

Welcome to this space, this sanctuary of peace where we come to not only create our best selves, but to also do the work of creating a beloved community....

Our light is the light of the sun, keeper of all we love; our light is the light of the earth, provider of sustenance; our light is the light of all living things, life precious like our own....

“Empathy is not finite, and compassion is not a pizza with eight slices. When you practice empathy and compassion with someone, there is not less of these qualities to go around. There’s more. Love is the last thing we need to ration in this world. The refugee in Syria doesn’t benefit more if...

Give voice to sorrow and fear — the wracking sobs at family betraying family the shock at the chasm separating neighbors “What will you do in the days ahead?” one asked. “Hide in an attic,” another replied, her eyes as wide and dark as Anne Frank’s. Already the assaults on bodies have...

There is a glow far off in the distance, a light to which no path leads. We know that each time we help another or join with them to heal the world, each time we stand up for justice and what is right, each time we work and hope and love against all odds, a spark is created that adds to the...

We bow our heads in order to imagine not one path, but many. We imagine a path forward for those who cannot imagine any path forward, because of poor health, financial hardship, family crises, and other roadblocks we cannot begin to understand or imagine. We struggle to imagine a path forward for...

O God, who moves among the stars of the cold clear sky, whose voice whispers in the silence of falling snow, whose silence stills our hearts and leaves us wondering and waiting. Lord, We are seeking Christmas, searching in this season for a hidden door to a forgotten room in the house of our very...

Night has fallen. Stars beckon in an indigo and velvet sky Somewhere a baby is being born. Tonight, the world lazes in a love of goodness while glories stream from heaven afar God is meeting us, tonight, where we are. So be not afraid, and be of good cheer, We wish you, each and all, very Merry...

Tonight, everyone is displaced and homeless. Tonight, everyone searches for Bethlehem. On this night, when the darkness comes so close, We listen in the stillness for the songs of angels. Like shepherds, we aren't too sure of what is happening. We don't know why we are so expectant. We don't know...

“Suddenly summoned to witness something great and horrendous, we kept fighting not to reduce it to our own smallness.” —John Updike, “Tuesday, and After,” The New Yorker, September 24, 2001 We sat on the back steps watching transfixed as hundreds of rust-red spiders, big as thumbs, dropped...

In times like these, we may seek a new word. But perhaps, in times like these, more than new words, we need old words. We made the journey back to Bethlehem; to the old story of a young, unwed, pregnant girl and her fiancé, Joseph, a poor, young carpenter. The Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus,...

We light the Hanukkah candles in wonder, joy, and gratitude, each candle a miracle. When the Holy Temple was rededicated at the time of the Maccabean liberation battle, only one day’s worth of oil remained, yet it burned for eight days so we light candles in remembrance....

.I want liberty and justice for all in my country. That will ask of me—and of many of you—the discipline of discomfort.