“What do you mean when you say, ‘progressive christianity?'” I am often asked this question and so rather than a sermon, this Sunday’s reflection explores the contours of our journey as we wrestle with the MYSTERY that is our SOURCE.
read moreI have to deduce that even though it all started with the big bang, expanded, and distributed its matter across the universe, it also exists as a single unified and inseparable whole. We are all star-stuff. We are all inextricably connected. The Divine in me can see the Divine in you. When I see you, I see me.
read moreAs progressive Christianity continues to emerge and evolve, it is important to seek clarity on the vision of Christian faith it calls us to. The word progressive bears significance. A progressive faith is an evolving faith, …
read moreIn this groundbreaking book Fox presents sides to Thomas Aquinas that have never been seen before. The series of four “conversations,” are based on the four paths of creation spirituality. Fox translates many works that have never before been translated into English, French or German.
read moreA stunning Spiritual Handbook drawn from the substantive teachings of a mystical/prophetic genius offering a sublime roadmap for spirituality and action.Praise for The Tao of Thomas Aquinas
read more“What are you looking for?” It takes a special kind of person to venture out on a cold and snowy January morning to come to church. So, let me ask you again, “What are you looking for?”
read moreDr. Rev. Yvette Flunder, singing and preaching at Canadian Memorial about Numbers 11:24-30, and the radically inclusive love of Jesus.
read moreSecular Consumerists (aka Secular Humanists) have made a cottage industry of bashing the belief system of totally innocuous and even quite benevolent people and they enjoy gleefully pointing to things like the Crusades, the Inquisition or the 30 Years War to, basically, say that Christianity sucks. They feel the Christian religion is impugned by such atrocities.
read moreMillennials seeking a new approach to spirituality, those who identify with the “emerging church” identified by Marcus Borg and others, anyone interested in Christ’s Jewishness and the elimination of anti-Jewish bias from Bible study, and women, LGBTs, and others who seek a Biblical approach that overcomes insistence on obedience to questionable Old Testament commands will be intrigued by the new book by Edward G. Simmons.
read moreThough most western religious traditions seem to promise some kind of afterlife, what if, as Martin Hägglund articulately argued, our limited mortal life is all there is? Our days, being limited in number, become more valuable, and our work becomes more meaningful. Without eternity, preserving the earth becomes more imperative. Though many spiritual teachers give assurances they cannot support with evidence, this sermon deals with morality in a matter-of-fact manner.
read moreTheism, or supernatural theism (for the most part, they bear the same meaning) is a monotheistic conception of God that has been with us since the idea of monotheism first began to emerge in our Judeo-Christian story–after the Exodus (1,200 Before the Common Era), down through the time of the Babylonian Exile (587-538 BCE).
read more“At the center of the Christmas story is hope…hope which comes to us in the form of a vulnerable, poor baby. A child, not a king, changes the world. God appears to us as a marginalized, Afro-Semitic, Jewish child from Nazareth in Palestine. A child who grows up to teach us to welcome the stranger. How would our world be different if we loved our neighbors as ourselves?” asks the Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis, senior minister of Middle Collegiate Church.
read moreIn these dark and dreary days each year, our world turns to celebrate another Christmas holiday. Some may do so out of the sheer need to escape, if only for a fleeting while; grasping, once again, at a thin belief in some divine intervention into the human story, with the birth of a savior king. Deeply powerful rituals and traditions are dragged out of the attic and observed; going through the motions for yet another year. Others, however, like myself, may repeat some of the rituals to simply reaffirm one’s belief in the rebirth of “hope”.
read moreWe believe in an Ultimate Reality
A Reality beyond our words
Human child of human mother,
see the Christ has come to birth,
demonstrating now in living
every person’s human worth.
I have never liked Luke 6:20, which says “Congratulations, you poor!” in newer translations. I think that’s demeaning.
read moreI want to give some thought to one of the most often invoked rituals in Christian and secular circles, namely giving of thanks. Thanksgiving, depending on the bible translation, is used about thirty-five times in the bible. The word “thanks” counts over a hundred times. Thank, thanked, thanking, thankful, thankfulness and thankworthy, all are used in some translation of the bible.
read moreWhen Joseph from the prison came
He shaved his face, to proclaim
There was one to come, yet un-named
That would be our Head in everything