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Jesus Never Laughed and Socrates Never Cried

Ironically, though our present moment in history is in possession of amazing means of communication through the internet, social media, cell phones, and virtually free international calling, we are beset with unprecedented loneliness. Somehow, our emotional health has not kept up with our technological capability!

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Capitalism vs Socialism

Socialism” has become a political scare word used to frighten voters away from progressive programs intended to expand health care coverage, make higher education available to lower income families, and to raise the minimum wage to a living wage. Spiritual people should not allow their compassionate instincts to be corralled by political propaganda. Let’s get totally honest about what is being said when we debate capitalism and socialism.

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Jesus: Without Christmas or Easter

What if Jesus was not divine? … Some will hear this as liberating good news, and others may find this to be shocking and disheartening. Still, the best path for any faith community is to follow the truth where it leads.

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Mental Health Realities and the Benefits of Spirituality

Despite the fact that 1 in 5 American adults experienced a mental health issue; despite the fact that 1 in 10 young people experienced a period of major depression; despite the fact that 1 in 25 Americans lived with a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression; we are either afraid of or reluctant to or maybe just indifferent about talking about mental health.

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Living Beyond Regret

Though our culture tends to praise youth while apparently being embarrassed by aging (offering a multi-billion dollar industry to hide it) the ancient sages did not see it that way. In fact, even though very many young people are very smart, it is difficult to be wise without first living a long time. The aged, according to Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Lao Tzu, Confucius, and Marcus Aurelius owe a debt of meaningful guidance to the world. Those who can retire should retire to something rather than simply retiring from work.

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When Jesus Wasn’t God

There was a time when neither Jesus nor his followers thought of or described him as God. Why is it that so many Christians are now required to confess that Jesus was always God?

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Devaluing Humans

A school district in Pennsylvania, in attempt to collect about $20,000 (against an $8 million budget) of unpaid lunch room bills, sent letters to parents with accounts in arrears threatening to have their children placed in foster care if they did not pay. It forces us to wonder how people whose careers are in the care and nurture of children could become so callous and lost?

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Non-Passive Pacifism

For Jesus, for Gandhi, for Dr. King, for the 3.4 billion people who participated in non-violent resistance in the 20th century, pacifism isn’t… well, passive. It is active and creative and frequently uses systems of domination against themselves. Those of us who wish to follow the teachings of Jesus should look to the early church and their non-violent practices and then spend more time understanding how this works and then, ultimately, replicate it in our lives.

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Evidence Based Faith

Haud Ignota Loquor (Speak not of what is not known)

What is “evidence based faith” and how does it inform the progressive faith movement? This important lecture was delivered in April at the Anderson SC Progressive Theology Forum and in June at the Secular Liturgies Conference in Exeter, England. This recording was made at the Annual Conference of the Emerging Church in Springfield, MO.

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The Demand For Gun Safety

Two mass shooting events took place on Saturday morning, August 3, in Texas, and that night in Dayton, Ohio. In both incidents, the shooter was stopped, the first in 6 minutes, the second in less than a minute. Still, in both cases people were killed and many more wounded because of the insanely powerful, military style weapons available for purchase all over America. This cannot go on.

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The Spiritual Discipline of “Resist”

Finding peace through social justice.

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Hosea: the Coronation Street of Ancient Israel

A Sermon on the Book of the Prophet Hosea

Imagine how your own relationship with the divine might evolve if you stopped worrying about believing in God and began to belove the DIVINE MYSTERY we call God. What might it look like in your life to belove the DIVINE that lives and breathes and has BEING in, with, through, and beyond you; in, with, and through, and beyond your neighbours?

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We Are All Connected (but I got mine!)

Physicists, Buddhist monks, and Christian mystics affirm in unity that “we are all connected.” This is fundamental to a spiritual world view. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, I can never be rich, even if I have a billion dollars, if others are poor. I can never be truly healthy while others languish without healthcare. The opposite of spirituality, a perspective sadly seen not only within secular culture but also at the heart of many religious communities, is to see the world only from the perspective of how to advance our own cause, increase our wealth, comfort and sense of security.

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City Of Refuge UCC – Sunday Worship Sept. 1, 2018

    Bishop Yvette Flunder is a native San Franciscan and third generation preacher with roots in the Church of God in Christ. Bishop Flunder is an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ and holds …

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God of the Living

Sermon Video: Scripture Reading – Luke 10:1-11 – Allysene Watson

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When Christian Nationalism Becomes God

Sermon Video

Sermon Video with Rev. Mark Sandlin, Church of the Covenant (PCUSA), Greensboro, NC.

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Lambs Among Wolves – Luke 10:1-16

What we know about the gospel-storyteller that we call Luke is that he wrote close to the end of the first century. Some 50 to 60 years after the life of Jesus of Nazareth; a time when the full force of the mighty Roman Empire was being brought to bear upon the Jewish people and upon the followers of Jesus’ Way of being in the world.

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