Coming Home

Coming Home

There’s an old Yiddish proverb, which Woody Allen made popular, that goes, “If you want to make God laugh, tell God your plans.” Now I don’t think God really works that way. I don’t imagine God as a master planner up in the sky, but rather as that Spirit, that mystery in which we live and move and have our being. If I was going to humanize God, I’d say God is not out there, far away, laughing at us and judging us, but with us, where we are: crying with us when we’re in pain, laughing and celebrating with us when we feel joy. My prayer practice is one of trying to be in the Presence, trying to come home, to myself and to that Mystery, to just be in that presence for a while.

Using Your Gifts

Using Your Gifts

We all love to receive gifts, don’t we? Whether it’s for birthday, holiday, or “just because.” There’s nothing like receiving a beautifully wrapped package with a big bow on top. It makes us feel special and provides an element of mystery and surprise as we are opening our present. And giving a gift to someone else fills us with joy. It warms our hearts to see the expression on the faces of the recipients. The process of giving and receiving is wonderful.

However, there are so many other important gifts that do not require wrapping.

Five Smooth Stones: Simple Truths That Ground Us

Five Smooth Stones: Simple Truths That Ground Us

One of the highlights of this past church year for me was the retelling of the David and Goliath story during A Time for All Ages when Rev. Frank portrayed David and Tori was Goliath. It was a noteworthy performance by Rev. Frank and an illustration of the power differential in the war on Ukraine by Russian forces. The David and Goliath story has always been one of my favorite Old Testament Bible stories especially after learning of the inner meaning of the story from a Swedenborgian philosophy perspective. Emanuel Swedenborg was an 18th century scientist, theologian and mystic whose extensive writings and mystical experiences have influenced many people over the years—Helen Keller was a Swedenborgian as well as Johnny Appleseed and Swedenborg was read by the Transcendentalists and most well-educated folks of the19th century which was the heyday of Swedenborgianism.

A Very Real and Necessary Gratitude

A Very Real and Necessary Gratitude

If you looked in the arts section of the Globe this morning you would see the list of Top 10 nonfiction bestsellers and the book, Braiding Sweetgrass is listed there at the top, as it has been consistently for several months now. Books about nature rarely make it to the bestseller’s list and if they do they don’t stay long, so what is it about the book Braiding Sweetgrass, a book that was published in 2013, that has staying power? Why is it a book that resonates with so many people? Why now? I admit, I was one of the people who read this book when it was first was published, enjoyed it and then it sat on my bookshelf as “book friend” where occasionally I would pull it off the shelf and leaf through it in search of ideas or inspiration. This year when I had the opportunity to facilitate a small group of fellow church members in a 6- week exploration of this book, I read it again with the attention one gives as a discussion leader. I thought I might tire of it, but what I found was that my connection with book was enlivened by the collective wisdom of our group and I am ready to lead another group in the future.

For the Living of These Days

For the Living of These Days

What restores you? What gives you rest? I’m not necessarily thinking about the rest that comes from sleep, as good and needed as that is, but rather, the feeling of being grounded, well-watered, at peace. As opposed to being stretched and stressed, dry and crispy, burned out. On this first Sunday in July, this summer day, I want to acknowledge that we are living in stressful times, and we have been for a while now. Our democracy is in peril, our environment is threatened like never before, there’s division and incivility in our land; there are plenty of reminders of how we humans are making a mess of things. Though the virus numbers are pretty low these days, we have been plodding through this pandemic for over two years now, and it’s pretty clear that it’s not going to just magically disappear. We have plenty of reasons to be tired and frustrated, anxious and worried.

Transformation: Who Needs It?

Transformation: Who Needs It?

Our worship theme for this month of June is “The Way of Transformation,” and this implies that transformation is good, right? That it’s needed, and necessary. You hear this in a variety of faith traditions, where the inference is that we need to be different, that we need to be changed. I carry this impulse within me, and I certainly don’t think we are perfect or done yet, there is always work we can do, but I wonder about this call to transformation: does it imply there is something broken or wrong about us that needs to be fixed?

Seeds of Transformation

Seeds of Transformation

There are certain creaturely features of spring’s transition into summer that catch my breath every year. The return of the snowy egrets to the marsh, the barn swallows that build nests in the gutters around our front porch, and the butterflies. When my kids were little, we’d all get excited when we first saw them and wildly exclaim – hi friends! – delighted by these familiar, expected, yet still utterly surprising and miraculous arrivals that yesterday weren’t here and today are. I sometimes still do this when I see them only now the girls roll their eyes at my silly excitement!