Two great periods of revivals saved the Christian religion from extinction in the United States. The Great Awakening, near the birth of our nation, and The Second Great Awakening that came along with the western expansion, the Civil War, and th

The First Easter

16 days ago 33m 8s

Easter, as it has been taught to us through traditional modern sermons, is, as Bishop John Shelby Spong described it, simply "unbelievable." Stepping back from the "yippee, we're all gonna live forever" myth, this lecture tries to treat the fir

This is Not Normal

23 days ago 18m 13s

THIS IS NOT NORMAL! Cultural values we worked hard to correct over the past century are slipping back into what is being allowed to become normative language, thinking, and voting. North Carolina's GOP nominated candidate for governor, Mark Rob

Redemptive Suffering

Mar 10th, 2024 21m 22s

The sad news of Alexey Navalny's death in prison brings to mind many who have chosen personal sacrifice as a way to raise awareness in the public's mind or to confront the evils of governments through the centuries. Navalny takes his place alon

How Much Does it Cost Me?

Feb 25th, 2024 19m 4s

32 of the 33 developed nations in the world have universal healthcare. Why is the United States the only outlier? We spend more on healthcare than any of the other nations, why can't we get the distribution system to be more fair? We also have

Fear is the Root of Anger

Feb 11th, 2024 20m 25s

Men and sometimes women confuse anger with a show of strength, or of being courageous when, in most cases, anger is simply a product of being afraid. As we try to understand the dangerous divisions within our American population, I think that w

God Doesn’t Write Books

Jan 28th, 2024 29m 7s

For many congregations, the Bible is still the church's book but not many progressives find scripture to be either authoritative or even relevant in their lives. We have lost an anchor in our lives when we give up on sacred texts but the church

What Your Teacher Didn’t Tell You (and probably didn’t know)

Jan 14th, 2024 29m 41s

The prophetic church has always advocated for human rights, civil rights, LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights, and has opposed the forces that create poverty, war, illness, and racism. As fascist language keeps rising in our current political environ

Time Does Not Exist

Dec 31st, 2023 26m 2s

Time is not a material thing. Our units of time actually measure movement, i.e. if there was no movement the concept of time would be meaningless. Talk about going back in time is not merely science fiction, it is, in fact, more a matter of fan

Finding Balance in a World that Demands Action

Dec 17th, 2023 18m 40s

Americans have fewer annual vacation days than any other western government and more than that, we tend to tie retirement and healthcare to our employment. So, out of fear and anxiety, we work more than almost any other nation and yet have mill

“When the Darkness Stares Back” (the world on the brink of war)

Dec 3rd, 2023 18m 51s

The war in Ukraine shows no signs of coming to an end and now the war in Gaza is escalating to an unthinkable death toll and seems only to get worse daily. What are we to make of these tragic wars that remind us so much of the way that WWII sta

No One Hears the Sound of a Wooden Bell

Nov 19th, 2023 19m 22s

The United States has perpetuated compromises in our constitution which were originally written to give slave holding states assurances that the institution of slavery would not be immediately wiped out by larger and more populous industrial st

Is Justice Blind Or Just Crazy?

Nov 5th, 2023 18m 22s

The familiar image of Lady Justice, blindfolded, holding up balanced scales in one hand and a sword in the other (a little frightening if she can’t see) suggests our desire that we will be a nation of laws and that there is only one standard of

Israel and Palestine (Migration, Immigration, Colonizing, Occupation)

Oct 22nd, 2023 26m 12s

Most of us have given an uncommon amount of time and energy to the news in the past weeks as Israel mounts a military response to the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks launched by Hamas. Just as the USA did after 9-11, it is only human to want to strike

Why Support Ukraine’s War with Russia?

Oct 8th, 2023 32m 14s

Does our support for Ukraine in their defensive war against Russia’s invasion qualify as a “just war?” Thomas Aquinas insisted that for a war to be just it must be conducted by a sovereign government, and the war must be for a just cause, and i

Creating Spiritual Community in a Post-Pandemic World

Sep 24th, 2023 18m 49s

Church attendance, especially among progressives is in decline, and financial support of these struggling congregations is going down even faster. Do we have a way of forming spiritual communities without churches, pastors, and budgets or do we

We Can’t All Be Above Average

Sep 10th, 2023 21m 22s

More than a year away from the next presidential election, it appears that we may have the same candidates that we had in 2020, in spite of multiple criminal charges against Donald Trump that range from insurrection to theft of nuclear secrets

(Still) Learning to Tell a Story

Aug 27th, 2023 22m 6s

Today is my last sermon as co-pastor and so, this week, I’ve been looking back as a way of looking forward, thinking about and learning from the years we’ve spent together. I am grateful for all the ways that our community has helped transform

The Limits of Shame

Aug 20th, 2023 21m 43s

While shame and humiliation are part of the human experience, we should not promote them or build our communities and movements around them. Instead, let’s focus on becoming places where we learn to care for ourselves and one another, with heal

End of Life Issues

Aug 13th, 2023 27m 51s

The suicide of a 40 year old scientist (and athlete and musician) raises two crucial issues with modern day America. 1) While we have possibly the most advanced medical science in the world, our distribution of health care and our priorities in

Facing the Facts of Moral Corruption in Government

Aug 6th, 2023 18m 12s

The authors of America's Declaration of Independence acknowledged that people seem to be willing to suffer the abuses of their government until such time that the liberties the government gives to itself become unbearable. With the loss of vote

“Our Humble Return”: Knowing our Capacities, Boundaries, and Aspirations

Jul 30th, 2023 17m 10s

Anyone actively involved in trying to make the world a better place has felt the pressures to push past our limitations, abandon boundaries, and sacrifice our well-being and aspirations in the name of a cause. While it is true that sometimes we

Listening is the first duty of Love

Jul 23rd, 2023 20m 34s

Tik Tok, Instagram, Twitter, and our very cell phones themselves have shortened our attention span to the point that we hard know how to talk to one another anymore and even worse, it seems that we are nearly incapable of listening to someone.

Empty Promises: From Consumerism to Community

Jul 16th, 2023 25m 48s

We often reflect on how economic and social disparities are symptoms of an unhealthy society, associated with environmental degradation, poverty, violence, and oppression. However, we continue to hurtle headlong toward ever-increasing dispariti

“Beyond Blaming and Agonizing”: Lovingkindness Practice in Ordinary Life

Jul 9th, 2023 26m 12s

Following up on my reflections in June, I share some of the ways that lovingkindness meditation has been helpful in my own life, especially with transforming self-hatred and anger into understanding and kindness. All of us who are committed to