What is the worth of matter and these bodies made from it? Some religionists say matter provides a mere stage on which we act the drama of our lives, creating the conditions of our afterlives. Some scientists say it and our world are just insignificant specks in the enormity of the universe. Are we lost in a false dilemma? Must we choose between irrelevant matter and senseless matter? We should reject both irrelevancy and senselessness. As I once wrote in a paper for the…
Drifting on the warm Pacific at the west shore of the big island of Hawaii I gazed through the clear view of my mask at all the many sorts of colorful fish amidst the canyons of coral. Sound, once below water, is a different world. Clicks and clacks can travel far and fast in water. The sound of my unusual form of breathing, my teeth gripping the rubbery snorkel, rushed into my ears, not masking the tremendous quiet of their realm – the fishes and…
“The secret of fortune is joy in our hands.” Emerson They’re out to get you. Who or what? Circumstances. Whether they are malevolent or benevolent depends on what you look for. Just as a paranoid person sees and hears mean forces conspiring to trip him or her up by saying cruel things, so does a pronoic person tend to see friendly, celebratory forces out to make life a bounteous pleasure. Go through life with cracked eyeglass lens and you’ll see a fragmented, cutting world. Go…
The issue I wish to address today involves the inevitable tensions that can grow between the good souls of a church or fellowship. My concern is twofold: how do we maintain and improve a dynamic, satisfying fellowship for all of us, and how do we model the dynamic mutuality possible in a pluralistic democracy? These issues go to the heart of our congregational and societal relations. I’m glad I don’t have any particular complaint or crisis in mind. This really has to do with…
One of the good things about growing older is that you have ample time to adjust to growing older. When I look in the mirror, I see a face I’ve grown accustomed to. Unlike friends who haven’t seen me for three or four decades, I don’t have to have to suddenly see the older me. I’ve grown accustomed to my face My breathing out and breathing in I’ve grown accustomed to the way my hair won’t rightly lay It won’t lie down I will…
At memorial services I sometimes refer to Psalm 90: For all our days pass away, our years come to an end, like a sigh. The years of our life are threescore and ten, or even by reason of strength fourscore; yet they are soon gone and we fly away… So teach us to number our days that we might get a heart of wisdom. Long though our lives might be, they will end. We will die, but will we have lived well? Will…
Robert Fulgum was delighted that a student brought an actual human brain to show and tell. The students got to hold the three pound organ in their hands. “I have one of those things between my ears,” he said, reminding them that not only does it serve to monitor and adjust all the functions of the body, from breathing to moods, it holds much more: [It] contains all the limericks I know, a recipe for how to cook a turkey, the remembered smell of…
On May 25th of this year we could celebrate the 200th birthday of a quintessential American: Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson exemplified American individualism as the holy duty of being human. He was the ultimate Protestant, preaching we should be ourselves as daringly, caringly and authentically as we can – that is God’s infinite creativity made manifest and satisfied. “Man is timid and apologetic; he dares not say, “I think,” “I am,” but quotes some saint or sage,” said Emerson. I don’t mind the irony. …
The essence of liberal religion lives in you as you. There is no separation between body and soul. You are embodied soul. The worldly and the worthy are not different things or places. Your unique incarnation inherits inherent freedom and responsibility. Who you are and how you live in your spirit, body, community, world, and cosmos is yours to live as you choose. So it is for each and all of us. This is the common existential condition we attempt to understand and care for…
Wild Geese You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world goes on. Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers…