Did you know that our solar system, right now is moving through an interstellar cloud that physics tells us should not even exist. This interstellar cloud or fluff, as astronomers affectionately call it, holds together because it is more strongly magnetized than anyone thought. Its magnetic field provides the attraction that prevents its destruction. This [...]
February 12, will be Charles Darwin’s 201st birthday. Last year I participated along with about 1,000 other clerics worldwide in celebrating Evolution Weekend. Little known outside of Unitarian Universalist circles, is the fact that Darwin and Emma Wedgwood, his cousin and wife, were both raised Unitarians and that Darwin studied for the ministry. Darwin resisted [...]
Preaching about grace in the shadow of the death and destruction of the earthquake that hit Haiti on January 13 seems more complex if not presumptuous to me now than it did some months ago when I decided on today’s sermon topic. I cannot help but wonder, what would I say about grace if I [...]
When visiting with a local rabbi this past week, I mentioned one reason why I gained an inclusive religious view as a child was that my father worked for Rabbi Maurice Hirschberg, the owner of Camp Horse Shoe, a Jewish boys’ camp. The Rabbi I was talking with was a bit older than I was [...]
Our kids and Alison love telling the story about the time we were visiting a small carnival/circus. They are targeting me in the telling – for two of my tendencies. We were vacationing in Blue Hill, Maine, visiting a neighboring town. As we walked around checking out the various sideshows, games, rides and [...]
Sermon inspired from Marcus Borg
by the Rev. Charles J. Stephens
There is a parable that I am sure you have heard, there was a peasant couple, lets call them Joseph and Mary. They are very poor. One account has Mary giving birth in a barn, putting her baby in a manger or feeding trough. Non-biblical traditions [...]
The Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. upheld and popularized the vision of the Beloved Community during the stormy years of the Civil Rights Movement. Writing about Doctor King’s address at the 1963 March on Washington, James Baldwin said, “That day, for a moment, it almost seemed that we stood on a height, and [...]
Advent Season does not have very impressive special affects, just four candles, an evergreen wreath and possibly an advent calendar with simple little pictures behind each door. Not much razzle-dazzle, a bit anticlimactic for our present day culture. Yet with often hectic preparations taking place in the next month, it may be just what we [...]
The bread machines we have working here in the sanctuary are an easy modern way to bake bread. Back in the good old days, a woman started working early in the morning. She would mix and knead huge amounts of dough. Then she would bake the week’s supply of bread. The aroma of freshly [...]
This is a marvelous season for walking in the woods, which I often do with Lucy, our dog. (Of course not as often nor as long as she would like.) We walk among the leaves that fell from the trees and bushes. In among the leaves are seeds and nuts in abundance. Squirrels, deer [...]
