I have come to discover that what most people know about humanism they learned from the lips of Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and other televangelists. It is a shame that this is so, but it is. One key leader of the religious right, Tim LeHaye, wrote an immensely popular book years ago about...

Radical hospitality. Radical means “out of the ordinary,” “revolutionary,” even. So what would it mean to receive someone—a stranger—with a presence that was not just polite, but to receive them with revolutionary generosity? Activist Rosemarie Harding remembers her growing-up days, in...

When I was in third grade at Evergreen School in Plainfield, NJ, my best friend was John Carvana. At 8 years old, I was awkward physically and socially, and I was drawn to John’s intelligence and easy grace. The friendships of young boys are less about whispered secrets than about hanging out and...

Bob and Addie Polk had moved into the neighborhood in 1970, when the little houses were relatively new, and through the years they had been friendly with the neighbors. After her husband died, Addie kept more to herself, increasingly limited by declining health in older age....

I had jet-lag. That’s my excuse—that, and it was a hot, humid Sunday afternoon in Chicago, the end of a three-day family reunion. All of us were well-fed and happy, but tired and...well, the family had been together for three days. When my aunt remembered that she needed to return the flower...

Call to Gather “The struggle of today is not altogether for today; it is for a vast future also.” -- Abraham Lincoln’s annual message to Congress, December 3, 1861[1] Reading: “The Gettysburg Address” by Abraham Lincoln Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this...

In March of 2002, the Unitarian Universalist Ministers’ Association held its every seven years gathering in Birmingham, Alabama. I was excited to go to Birmingham, partly because it would be my first convocation with a thousand or so colleagues, but for another reason as well. My first husband,...

The early settlers who risked life and limb to come to this land—a land strange and unknown, but full of promise—these early settlers had a dream. That dream included freedom to worship as they wished; it included the opportunity to prosper, if they were willing to work hard; it included the...

Readings An excerpt from “The Sonnets To Orpheus” by Rainer Maria Rilke Wisdom of Solomon 10:15-21 Lyrics to Tracy Chapman’s song “Be And Be Not Afraid” Sermon The character of God said it to the reluctant Hebrew prophets who were always charged with speaking truth to power. “Be not...

Reading Isaiah 58:1-12 (excerpt) Shout out, do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet!Announce to my people their sins. Day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness… Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, and...

Earlier this week I was speaking with a member of the church about the sermon I was going to deliver today. She said to me, “What’s the big deal?” This one’s easy. All you have to say is: “You have money. We need money. Give us your money. Then we can all go home.” So, you have money. We...

Jefferson Unitarian Church Golden, CO Mothers Day, May 13, 2007 Three weeks ago my wife, Phyllis, and I participated in our all church social action weekend. What a magical day that was! We chose to help out building the new community garden at 32nd Avenue just this side of I-70....

In a Barnes & Noble just before Easter, I watched a woman glance at a table of books and make a face like she'd just tasted something awful. Then she hurried on by as if she were afraid the books would bite. Curious, I looked to see what she had grimaced at: All the books on the table were about...

In 1935, a US government truck pulled up to my grandfather’s house, a two-room sharecropper’s shack in which sixteen people lived. They were starving to death. Not malnutrition. Starvation. The truck brought surplus food, which on that particular visit consisted of a gallon of mustard. My father...

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America..." "Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are!..." 1 "Sisters are we, Spurs always true, our hearts ring out for the yellow and blue..." "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both..." 2 A...

What we try to express as Unitarian Universalists, are these truths: Each of us is unique. Each of us has gifts we were given at birth – we were born with these gifts; they are wired within us. Each of us has the responsibility to apply these talents to the world. Each of us must navigate how to...

A Sermon for First UU Church of New Orleans and Community Church of New Orleans Sunday, August 27, 2006 First Presbyterian Church The clouds gather and the rumbling is enough to unsettle anyone....

First, let me bring you greetings from the larger family of faith of which you are a part. The Unitarian Universalist Association is the coming together of, now, 1055 free, liberal religious congregations in North America....

It is 2 a.m. I am sleeping in the chaplain’s on-call room at an inner city hospital. My room hovers over the Emergency Entrance and the darkness is punctuated with sirens and lights. It is my night to be available for those unexpected things that happen in the night. But, unlike most of my calls,...