As protests continue here in Portland and across the nation, there is much that needs to be said. I want to begin with the basics. Justice has always been a matter of life and death for Black, Indigenous and People of Color in the United States. Justice, fairness, dismantling systems of oppression therefore has always had an urgency for People of Color which has only rarely been shared by majorities of those who identify as White. I do not believe that urgency is even glimpsed by many who identify as White. The structures that keep Black Lives in jeopardy must…

Imagine: A Black police officer forces his knee onto the neck of a white man, in handcuffs, lying face down on the pavement. His knee keeps pressing down harder and harder for 8 minutes while the white man gasps and pleads that he cannot breathe, begs for air, calls his children’s names. Cell phone video of the violence goes viral. Can you imagine that that Black man would not be in jail? Can you imagine that he would not even have been charged? The murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis has broken through even the numbing truth of 100,000 deaths…

As energy builds to “re-open” the nation, the question for First Unitarian is when we might imagine “re-opening” the church. When can we return to worshipping in the sanctuary? When can we open our campus for programming and rentals, for rites of passage and community events? When can we get back to “normal?” Several weeks ago, we announced that Sunday worship would continue only on-line through the summer. We have just made the difficult decision that we should not plan to return to the sanctuary for worship in the fall. First Unitarian will plan for on-line only worship through the…

The Lord of the Flies offers a grim and pessimistic portrayal of human nature. The “darkness [of the human] heart,” to use the author’s phrase, is revealed when a group of boys from a British boarding school, shipwrecked without adults on a deserted island, descend into violence. Their “civilized” veneers are quickly peeled away and their violent human natures emerge. Three of them die before they are rescued. The book was published in 1951 and helped shape a generation (or more) that was struggling to sustain a positive, liberal view of progress and human nature despite the reality of Auschwitz,…

The Sweet Gum tree outside my kitchen has finally leafed. It is always a “late bloomer” and the leaves are still unfolding a bit, up here on the hill where I live. I love being present to the greening of that tree, though it makes me wait each year, and though I am already missing the stark outlines of the branches against the grey winter sky. For me, this is a time between. Though winter is so clearly over, whatever summer will bring is only beginning to emerge. But there are signs. The ferns along my front path, planted by…

“The Pandemic Will Pass. Our Grief Will Endure” by Eddie Glaude, Jr., Washington Post, April 7, 2020 I printed Prof. Glaude’s article more than three weeks ago and placed it on a small stack of books and papers at the left of my desk. To the right are the books with chapters I plan to use in coming sermons, the poems and paragraphs I will use as readings and openings, the files I must open to move our ministry ahead. The stack to the left, which is much smaller, holds things that will not let me go, though I don’t…

A good friend, a longtime activist, confronted with injustice, is fond of asking, “Where can I insert my crow-bar and push!” Her question asks where needs are greatest and where effort can be most effective. Six weeks into the Covid 19 world, many of us privileged folks are seeing clearly the ways we remain insulated while marginalized communities bear the brunt of the pain. Where is the virus most deadly? Communities of color, poor communities, immigrant communities, incarcerated communities. Covid is shining a spotlight on the inequalities built into the fragile prosperity that has blessed too few at the expense…

When will things get back to normal? When will we be able to worship in the sanctuary? When will the choirs be able to sing again? When will our children be able to have religious education classes? All these questions are natural. The problem is that there are not good answers to any of them. We don’t know. We are planning for virtual-only worship through the end of this church year. My personal forecast is that we will remain in virtual mode for longer than that. So many of you have praised our virtual worship. So many have spoken of…

Easter at First Unitarian is usually such a celebratory time. Big music. All the choirs. The Halleluiah hymns. Every seat filled. Some years, Standing Room Only. Every year, I ponder the power that Easter has for liberal religious folks…for us…and for me. The rejection of the Christian miracles was a central part of the creation of our Unitarian faith. Yet, in a normal year, more folks gather in our sanctuary on Easter morning than any other morning in the year. More than any other time…except Christmas Eve, of course. Every year, I conclude that there is simply a human need…

“All I can do is to LOVE bigger.” The young nurse being interviewed at home after her 12 hour shift at a New York hospital, exhaustion in her face, spoke to me with a needed reminder of what I know to be true. All we can do is to love bigger. I offer her words not because they provide an easy antidote to the grief and fear that so many of us feel. Nor an antidote to the weariness I am already feeling as the health crisis tries to crowd out every other concern and undercut so many joys. Being…