Jesus
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Dear Jesus, I am writing to you as one of your very distant descendants in the life of faith—a minister in a religious tradition that, oddly enough, would not exist without you, and yet does not look very much like what most people today call “Christianity.” It’s called Unitarian Universalism. In some ways, I think…
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Dear Herod, Every December your shadow lengthens across the Christmas story. People hiss at the mention of your name–or ought to. You carry the role of the villain, the figure who stalks the edges of the manger scene, the embodiment of fear and cruelty in a story otherwise filled with angels and wonder and visions…
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Jesus Saves! As I say that, what’s your immediate reaction? Hold on to it, now, as I take you back 500 years ago to the thought of a Polish theologian named Faustus Socinus. He believed it. He believed that Jesus saves. But now lean in and listen carefully. Faustus Socinus believed that Jesus saves but…
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Theology Outside the Box
Summers when I was a teenager, I used to teach Vacation Bible School at the Church of Christ in Palestine, Texas. We used popsicle sticks to create little Noah’s Arks. We played Pin-the-Animal-to-the-Ark. We ate a snack of animal crackers. It was a blast. It might not have looked like it, but we were doing…
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Dear Star of Wonder
December 22, 2024, O Star of wonder, star of light, star with royal beauty bright, That’s from one of the Christmas carols so many of us sing in my time, which starts, We three kings of Orient are, bearing gifts, traversing afar, field and fountain, moor and mountain, following yonder star –which is you. And…
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The Church You Choose
I hope everyone has had a chance to read this pledge brochure that came in the mail around two weeks ago. We’ve got some extras if you did not receive it. The Church You Choose is the headline. Or, to be more precise, The Church UU Choose. We have to thank Kip for this language.…
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In my home growing up, we had a glass-top coffee table in the living room, and tucked away underneath was our family Bible. I was five years old when I opened it up, out of curiosity. What was this huge book doing in the middle of the living room, in a place of pride (although…
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Dear Angels
Dec. 17, 2023 Dear Angels, It was my elementary school’s tradition that the very last moment of school before we kids would be launched into the winter holidays was a Christmas carol sing-a-long. While the long yellow buses would start rolling up to the school and prepare to collect us and take us home, we’d…
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When one imagines a religion, something human-made may immediately come to mind: perhaps religious architecture like Angkor Wat, the vast ancient Hindu temple complex in Cambodia; or Islam’s Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem; or Chartres Cathedral in Paris. Something spacious and sizable in stone and glass, shaped by human hands. Yet I am struck…
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You may recall the main theme of the book of Proverbs in the Bible: Bad things happen to bad people, and good things happen to good people. For thousands of years, this has been a major strand of wisdom in Judaism. So along comes Jesus, around year 30 of the common era. His ministry of…
Spiritflow 