OVERFLOWING GRACEThree Easter Stories4 April 2010James Ishmael FordA Sermon delivered at theFirst Unitarian Church inProvidence, Rhode IslandMark’s Empty TombMary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome agreed, as was the custom in those days, that when the Sabbath was over they would bring sweet spices to Jesus’ tomb and anoint his body. It was very early on Sunday morning, the sun just rising in the sky when they gathered together and walked toward the tomb. As they walked… Read more

Monica Furlong called Alan Watts a genuine fake.Works for me.A spiritual huckster.But he also had a finger on the real thing.Happy Holy Saturday… Read more

I’ve been up since just after five this morning. I’m on my second cup of coffee and am thinking about the third.And Sunday’s Easter sermon is barely taking shape.Later this morning, no matter how far or not I am, I’ll need to stop and go out to Swan Point to preside at a graveside interment. My Buddhist mind is swirling with the Christian season. Thursday we observed a communion service. It grabbed my heart and focused my mind. But apparently… Read more

The words are a homily and communion service, I assume by an old friend, posting under the name RevWik. As he doesn’t seem to give his name anywhere at either Youtube or the link from which it is posted, I’ll leave it at that.Pretty good Good Friday meditation…May the broken parts of your lives lead directly to that new life of which so many dream, and for which so many long.And thanks for those who show the way! Read more

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I’d say can’t wait, but under the circumstances that seems a tad unseemly sentiment… Read more

Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama concludes his escape from occupied Tibet, having crossed the border into India, and on this day in 1959, is granted political asylum.I was rummaging through Youtube for a suitable video to mark this occasion and was a little surprised at the number of offerings hostile to the Dalai Lama. The main gripe is that Tibet under the Dalai Lamas was a theocracy, and that people suffered terribly there before the Chinese invasion. True ’nuff…. Read more

As the man said, only don’t know! Read more

I opened my Facebook account to find the most delightful quote. It comes from the actor and comedian John Fugelsang.”Obama is not a brown-skinned, anti-war socialist who gives away free healthcare. You’re thinking of Jesus.”Worth a moment of two to think about…And, while no socialist fix, far, far from anything worthy of that designation; the health-care program the president and congress were able to deliver is something wonderful, inspired by our better angels, and very much is, as the vice-president… Read more

One of the more disturbing thoughts for me is how easy it is to become an oppressor. Stanley Milgram’s famous experiment at Yale in 1961 revealed a frightening fact. It appears following some fairly easy steps the majority of people will move from administering a slight electric shock to administering what they understand to be lethal shocks to people seen as unwilling to obey instructions. Similarly, a decade later Philip Zimbardo ran an experiment at Stanford where people were divided… Read more