as preached at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston, February 27, 2022 My sermon this morning is inspired by the person who won the right to “Name the Sermon” in last year’s auction. When I asked them what they would like me to preach about their answer was both simple and capacious: self-help. I responded with a desire for a bit more specificity. What about self-help? The...
as preached at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston, December 12, 2021 This is my second sermon on the theme of reimagining possibilities. Last week, at the end of my first sermon on the series, I invited you to attend to the world and share with me something beautifully unanticipated that you encountered: an exquisite movement, an inspiring sound, or a wondrous object. Several of...
In this third sermon on reimagining grief, I reflect on the theology of Frankenstein.
We imagine and co-create the world together. We can imagine a different one than we have now.
Over the years, I have tried to follow the injunction, attributed to Karl Barth but probably apocryphal, to preach with “the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.” Not being a Christian, I have never taken the injunction literally. Rather I have understood it to mean, root yourself in your tradition, ground yourself in the goodness of the Earth, and from that foundation offer up what...
Today, I want to talk with you about a difficult subject: death. Today, I want to talk with you about a glorious subject: life. In short, I want to talk with you about religion. The Unitarian Universalist theologian Forrest Church claimed, “religion is our human response to the dual reality of being alive and having to die.” These days of pandemic make death an almost unavoidable subject. Which...
as preached for the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston’s online worship service, April 26, 2020 The theme of today’s service is renewal and regeneration. And in this sermon I invite us to consider the most pressing question immediately before us: What comes next? The Governor of Texas has begun the process of re-opening the state. He has appointed a task force to get non...
as preached at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston, Museum District campus, February 2, 2020 Today we launch our annual stewardship campaign. It is the season in congregational life when you decide how much money you will pledge to support First Houston in the coming fiscal year. In the Unitarian Universalist tradition, churches are owned and governed by their members. Making an...
as preached at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston, Museum District campus, November 3, 2019 For about ten years I edited “Workers Power,” a monthly column that appeared in the labor newspaper the “Industrial Worker.” It was a forum for working people to share their experiences organizing a labor union. The people who wrote for it worked all kinds of jobs. Over the years I ran...
A few people from the congregation I serve and from the broader Unitarian Universalist community have been asking me for more information on Rojava, the autonomous region in Northern Syria now under attack by the Turkish military and the reactionary Islamic militas that aligned with it. I have compiled this brief list to aid those who would like to learn more. I intend to update it as I find more...