And as we traverse the water of time, whether the waters be smooth or rocky, we must each answer the questions: What is worth saving? What must be let go?
The Waters of Time
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Ingathering: Water Communion 2020
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Like a deer crying for water,
my soul cries for You, O God;
my soul thirsts for God, the living God;
O when will I come to appear before God!
My tears have been my food day and night;
I am ever taunted with, “Where is your God?”
The Fierce Urgency of Now
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This past Friday the Washington Post journalist Robert Samuels put out a simple eleven-word tweet. Over an image of the Post, he wrote, “Have mercy. Every story in this front page made m[e] gasp.” The articles offered a litany of woes: “Trump suggests delaying election;” “U.S. economy contracts at record rate;” “Mail backlog raises fears of delays in ballot delivery;” “DHS gathers ‘intelligence’...
Sermon: When Enemies Become Friends
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as preached at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston, Museum District campus, January 12, 2020 I am thrilled to be in the pulpit with you this morning. I am excited to be staying on as your developmental minister for the next five and a half years. And I am deeply appreciative of all of the enthusiastic notes of support that the Board and I have received via email and through...
Two Bodies, One Heart (A Sermon Preached Following the Assassination of Qasem Soleimani)
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as preached at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston, Museum District, January 5, 2020 Happy New Year! I was not supposed to be in the pulpit with you this morning. But plans change, people get sick, and I find myself with you today on the first Sunday of a new year and a new decade. It is good to be with you. It is good to be with even though the news at the opening of this, what...
Sermon: Take Courage
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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...
Sermon: The Unnamable All
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as preached at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston, Museum District campus, October 6, 2019 I am a Yankee. Living in Houston has made this aspect of my identity abundantly clear. I move through the world in distinctively non-Texan ways. I do not wear cowboy boots. I cannot two-step. I do not own a car. I root for neither the Houston Texans nor the Dallas Cowboys–though we...
Op-ed in today’s Houston Chronicle Supporting the Climate Strike
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I have an op-ed in the September 20, 2019 Houston Chronicle. I wrote it in support of the global climate strike. Many members of the congregation I serve, the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston, will be participating.
In the Interim, September 2019
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I am really excited to be with you for another year of interim ministry. I am very much looking forward to what we have coming up! Most of our work together in the next months will revolve around three overlapping tasks. First, we will be preparing for the developmental ministry that will follow my interim ministry. This ministry will last between five and seven years. It will be designed with...
Homily: Water Communion 2019
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as preached at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston, Museum District campus, August 25, 2019 When I was a kid, maybe in second grade, I was given a homework assignment. I was told to make a diorama of the water cycle. How many of you have had a similar assignment at some point in your schooling? It is a pretty familiar one. I proceeded with it as instructed. I got some blue paint. I...