*Title from book by Milan Kundera   Dear Friends,   Just when we think things can’t get any worse, another week goes by and guess what? IT GOT WORSE! To me it feels like some kind of absurd whack-a-mole game where no matter how much you do to respond or cope, another one pops up that you have to knock down …with no rest in sight.   We are emotional beings and whether we are letting ourselves feel things or not, we are absorbing chaos, grief, outrage and a gamut of other emoti

*Title of book by Marimba Ani, published in 1969 I was standing by my window On a cold and cloudy day When I saw the hearse come rolling For to carry my mother away Will the circle be unbroken? By and by, Lord, by and by There's a better home awaiting In the sky, Lord, in the sky   These words, written by Ada R. Habershon in 1907, highlight for me today the profound loss of Dr. Dorsey Blake who died a year ago tomorrow. The words seem to pick up on the grief that we still exp

A little more than six months ago, on June 1 of last year, I stood up here to be ordained, and I opened my sermon as follows:   The title on the order of service may cause you to wonder. If not it should. I have so much grey hair, and also with tremors in my hand and foot, that one would naturally expect me to have a sad ending ceremony, or maybe a “home-going” ceremony—certainly not a celebratory beginning ceremony, certainly not an ordination.   By December of last year, th

My Lord, what a morning; my Lord, what a morning; Oh, my Lord, what a morning, when the stars begin to fall.   You’ll hear the trumpet sound, to wake the nations underground, looking to my God’s right hand, when the stars begin to fall.   This song, a spiritual most likely inspired by  Richard Allen, founding bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, was based on bible verses portraying the apocalypse…the end times. The hymn is thought to have been inspired by the ori

I lift my hands in total praise to you…. This was a song that was introduced to me by Dorsey Blake. It now brings back his memory. It is a powerful testament to our human dependence, but also to our strength. I began with this song today because I think we need it.   I just spent a week listening to the pain of the world as experienced by individuals that meet with me weekly for support. It is a pain that certainly resonates with me as well. It is a pain that demands an embra

Keep our lamps trimmed and burning…for the time is drawing nigh. It is clearly time to unite in spirit and be prepared…prepared for new realizations…new ways of seeing life…May we connect with the Great Spirit of aliveness in which we live and move and have our being… A teacher of mine, Bayo Akomolafe wrote: What would change if we took seriously the consideration that the world is alive, that we derive our being from a never-static, ever-changing field of entanglements, and

We often feel lonely in the holidays, wondering where we belong in all the festivities.     January comes, the light is still thin, but we enter the world again.  The sunrise and sunsets are vibrant and we feel renewed.     This may be the moment to connect with our inner selves; we yearn for communion, first with ourselves and then with the community.   Howard Thurman viewed loneliness not just as an absence of people, but as a profound spiritual yearning, often overcome by

The Psalmist said that he had gone to church; he had praised God with great rejoicing; he has kept the holy days with devotion and sacrifice, and yet for all these things his soul was cast down within him, and he was puzzled and not a little ashamed. I presume that we too often must confess to ourselves if to no one else that even though we had gone to church and raised our voices in song an offered our prayer in the uttermost of devotion, yet somehow or other our soul was ca

Nature is both stable and orderly but also plastic and flexible, capable of entering new patterns and diversified combinations, as we see in the variety of structures and organisms of the geographical environment. But even these varied forms and products have not exhausted the possibilities and potentialities…On each level of organization different possibilities appear as constituent parts, by their interaction organize into new configurations in which the constituents behave

(Originally published 01/02/2022)   Oh, I woke up this Morning with my mind stayed on freedom. I was walking and talking with my mind stayed on freedom. I was singing and praying with my mind stayed on freedom, Hallelu, Hallelu, Halleluia. I was stuck on freedom. I could not free myself from it. I was anchored in it, dedicated, committed to it. I just couldn’t let go of it. Halleluia! All praise to God, freedom. What a wonderful way to begin any day – in radical amazement as

There's a star in the east on Christmas morn Rise up shepherd and follow It'll lead to the place where the Savior born Rise up shepherd and follow Leave your ewes and leave your lambs Rise up shepherd and follow Leave your sheep and leave your rams Rise up shepherd and follow… Follow the Star of Bethlehem Rise up shepherd and follow If you take good heed to the Savior's words Rise up shepherd and follow You'll forget your flocks, You'll forget your herds Rise up shepherd and

A candle is a small thing. But one candle can light another. And as it gives its flame to the other, see how its own light…increases!   YOU ARE SUCH A LIGHT. Light is the power to dispel darkness. You have this power to move back the darkness in yourself and in others – with the birth of light created when one mind illuminates another, when one heart kindles another, when one person strengthens another. And its flame also enlarges within you as you pass it on.   The opening q

If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough.   The opening quote is from Meister Eckhart, 13 th  century mystic. Highlighting this quote in a recent post, Gianluigi Gugliermetto cautions:    But let’s not trivialize his sentence. He meant that the essence of prayer is welcoming reality, living it not begrudgingly but fully. There is no need for elaborate petitions to God if one is present, attentive, and accepting. That is the only good ground for a true p

Deep River, my home is over Jordan, Deep River, Lord, I want to cross over into camp ground…   According to a monograph by Miles Fisher: QUAKERS in North Carolina bought numerous slaves and, through their Manumission Society, which was established on July 19, 1816, sent them to other countries. The North Carolina Yearly Meeting, co-operating in this work, reported on June 9, 1825, that their agents endeavored “collectively to confer with the people of color under Friends’ car

I got shoes, you got shoes, All of God's children got shoes! When I get to Heaven gonna put on my shoes; I'm gonna walk all over God's Heaven, Heaven, Heaven. Everybody talkin' 'bout Heaven ain't goin' there, Heaven, Heaven; Gonna walk all over God's Heaven! I got a robe, you got a robe, All of God's children got a robe! When I get to Heaven gonna put on my robe; I'm gonna shout all over God's Heaven, Heaven, Heaven. Everybody talkin' 'bout Heaven ain't goin' there, Heaven, H

Speak the truth, without fear and without exception, and see everyone whose work is related to your purpose. You are in God’s work, so you need not fear man’s scorn. If they listen to your requests and grant them, you will be satisfied. If they reject them, then you must make their rejection your strength.     The opening words come from Mohandas Gandhi. In a letter to Muriel Lester, Gandhi was giving her advice on how to move forward in the struggle. I found these words in H

People ask me, “Why celebrate the Day of the Dead/Samhain  if you’re not Mexican or Celtic?” Because this time of year is not owned by one culture....it is a universal threshold, a moment when the veil between worlds grows thin and we are invited to remember that we, too, are part of the great web of life and death. Honoring the ancestors is an ancient practice found in every lineage on Earth. It reminds us that life moves in cycles, that endings are sacred, and that we a

But there is another and vaster possibility which has made itself manifest here and there during this fateful time: a deep spiritual awareness that one’s life is in vital touch with the Source of Being that holds and makes secure against all that destroys and lays waste.   The opening words are from Dr. Howard Thurman in his book, The Luminous Darkness. He is discussing what was happening during the Civil Rights Movement when people joined with others for protests and demonst

Imagine opening a series of Russian babushka or “grandmother” dolls, in which each successive doll emerges much larger than all of the...

The opening music comes from the African American experience…   Well mother don't you stop prayin' Father keep right on prayin' Don't you...