This week I clicked the visitor tab of a congregation I do not know and found myself reading the story of a family’s first trip to this particular community. I read as they couldn’t find the church, doubted their GPS, and finally pulled into the parking lot; as they nervously entered, were welcomed and delighted in the sanctuary; as they sang soon-to-be-beloved hymns for the first time and listed to a sermon that spoke to their souls and as they realized... Read more
Seriously, No Joke Have you ever noticed how pointless it is to ask someone, “What’s your religion?” The answer is likely to be a proper noun, such as Baptist or Hindu. But what does that designation mean to the person answering the question? Does such an answer really tell us anything? Beyond, perhaps, an origin for someone’s recent gene pool or perhaps about some idiosyncratic choices? Separating out religion from everything else we do—all the other meaning-making systems we use—is... Read more
You’ve seen them spilling off the paved trail into the woods; you’ve seen them in parks; across sand dunes; wherever people go. There’s no standard English phrase for them. A couple of terms are “desire paths” and “goat trails.” In another era they were called bootleg trails. They are those paths that steadfastly ignore the “keep to the trail” or “keep off the grass” signs and dart off on their own, wearing paths of least resistance or of the shortest... Read more
Beloveds, may peace and a time for some internal housecleaning be yours in this holiday season. Until the new year, with gratitude, Rev. Deanna Read more
This week my guest blogger is Jim Foti, the assistant minister at the congregation I serve. He delivered a version of this reflection over the weekend. We hold in our hearts the United States, as our country continues to fail to extend to all the unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We are a nation that still has not healed from our original wounds of conquest, genocide, and slavery. We are a nation also still wounded... Read more
The Feast of Hanukkah, commemorating the rededication of the Temple in particular and the resistance of a religious people to eradication and assimilation in general, begins at sundown today, to be celebrated for 8 days (as it has for over 2000 years) until sundown on Wednesday, the 24th. In the classic textbook A History of Israel by John Bright, we learn that the crisis for the Jewish community that proceeded re-dedicating the Temple was “precipitated by the Seleucid King, Antiochus... Read more
How Sad A sad fact: Many things that are good for society or the earth itself are not good for me, me, me. Higher taxes hurt people like me. A livable minimum wage costs people like me. Fair trade costs me money. Carbon cap and trade hurts the pocket books of people like me, me, me. A sad fact: wealth can be fairly distributed in three ways: the rich can decide to give it away; taxes; revolution. I can live in... Read more
What does is mean to be a people of wonder? This was the evening’s invitational question for the small group ministry covenant group I have the honor of facilitating in New Orleans. And it has me thinking…and praying. Almost every black person who talked with me after the non-indictment of Darren Wilson in the death of Mike Brown and of Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Eric Garner said “I’m not surprised.” “I’m [angry, grieving, outraged, sad, mad, furious, exhausted…],... Read more
It is advent, friends. At this time of year people often talk about the Kingdom of God and how Jesus was born to bring this kingdom or realm of God to earth. Talking about Jesus and the Kingdom of God are not something that get talked about very often if ever from Unitarian Universalist pulpits. But I’d like us to wonder about this for a minute, about the realm of God and this whole idea to see if there might... Read more
Breathe, said the wind. How can I breathe at a time like this, when the air is full of the smoke of burning tires, burning lives? Just breathe, the wind insisted. Easy for you to say, if the weight of injustice is not wrapped around your throat, cutting off all air. I need you to breathe. I need you to breathe. Don’t tell me to be calm when there are so many reasons to... Read more
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