This is the first in an Advent/Christmas series exploring the journey of the soul, described in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, as the journey of Advent and into Christmas. It carries us back to another time of social and spiritual upheaval in 19th century Europe where class, social, racial and ethnic divisions created intolerance, exclusion, and left many destitute. In just such a time, Charles Dickens wrote a story that has shaped our modern understanding of Christmas; through the characters of Ebenezer Scrooge, Jacob Marley, the Cratchits, and Tiny Tim, Dickins gives us a parable of what Christmas aims to do for and with us…
"Each one does one thing" | practicing "service:" the quieter activism
While service and activism, particularly among students and young adults is surging (see the student-led climate strikes), the problems and challenges of the world can seem so daunting as to paralyze others. In this sermon, I explore how simple, ordinary forms of service are do-able and, when considered in combination with others, are immensely powerful. I also explore the role of small, democratic faith communities, like churches, mosques, and synagogues as places where the virtues of democracy can flourish (as subversive agents amid tyranny) and people can learn that if “each one does one thing” we can effect real change. Small communities can be incubators of larger society transformations. The sermon is based on Paul’s Letter to the Romans 12.3-13 and the Acts of the Apostles 2.43-47. Find the audio recording here.
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Today is the third and final sermon in a series we do each fall called “The Three Practices.” Each fall, as the year comes to a close and we look toward the year to come, we renew our commitment to the three basic spiritual practices . . .
Sabbath and Ceremony: A Spiritual Practice to Rebalance Your Life
How can the simple (though not necessarily easy) practice of sabbath help heal the world? Sabbath is more than taking time off. It’s a basic life orientation toward busyness and fullness. Sabbath is the habit of resisting the hurry and worry, the acquiring and protecting that drives the economics and politics of the modern world. Walter Brueggemann has said that “In our own contemporary context of the rat race of anxiety, the celebration of Sabbath is an act of both resistance and alternative. It is resistance because it is a visible insistence that our lives are not defined by the production and consumption of commodity goods.” Sabbath is ceremonial, that is, it is a way we, as our ancestors did, seek to live more harmoniously with the rhythms of nature from which our lives come and to which they will return. Our key texts are Exodus 20.1-3, 8-11 and a reading from Thomas Berry’s book, The Great Work.
Practicing Authentic Community: Third in the Series "Flourish: How to Bring Out the Best in Yourself"
While relationships can (and have) deformed us and caused us to hide our souls and languish because of it, authentic, generous, and kind community can heal and transform us into the splendor of Christ’s light in us. Third in the series: “Flourish: How to Bring Out the Best in Yourself.” This week is an invitation to the spiritual practice of authentic community. It’s a meditation based on Acts 9.17, 2 Corinthians 5.17, and this quote from Anais Nin: “Everyone of us carries a deforming mirror where we see ourselves as too small or too large, too fat or too thin . . . . Once the deforming mirror is smashed, there is the possibility of wholeness, there is the possibility of joy.”
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If we are going to flourish, we will find ways to practice what I call “deep self-inquiry”—if we do, we will, as I said two weeks ago, discover that we are probably far more than we’ve become. Or as I said last week, “We’ve got more inside us than we ever dared to dream.” If we practice deep self-inquiry, we will discover that who we’ve become may not be, in fact, the fullness of who we truly are. And we will discover that the painful, frightening, and unwelcome experiences of our lives often invite us to wake up to the truth that we may not yet be living from our true identity—from the depth of our soul’s true goodness, beauty, and power.
This journey of our soul, the journey into flourishing, will require courage, a gutsy vulnerability.
Practicing Vulnerability: Second in the Series "Flourish: How to Bring Out the Best in Yourself"
Things are not always going to turn out the way we want. There are things we can’t control. And there will come a time when each of us faces something we wish we’d done differently. We’ll feel like a fool or a failure. To flourish, you’ll need to keep going. Your life is worth it. You’ve got more inside you than you ever dared to dream.
In this second sermon in a three week series, I explore what it means to 1. Show up for your life, 2. Brave up when it gets tough, and 3. when you fall or fail, get back up. It’s a meditation on Luke 12.32-34 and a quote from Letters to a Young Poet: “Think of the world you carry within you. Attend to what rises within you and prize it above all that you perceive around you. What happens most deeply inside you is worthy of your whole love.” —Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)
Find the text version of the sermon below . . .