I’ve been wondering what makes the difference. Gratitude for the blessings in our lives is almost universally praised by people of faith. We recognize gratitude as a virtue every Sunday when we give thanks for all we have received. “This is the day we have been given. Let us rejoice in it and be glad,” are the words with which we end worship each Sunday. But in a season when so much around us is in danger of being lost, it can be hard to get to thanks. When personal challenges and the political dramas of the world make optimism…

This time next week many of us will be enjoying Thanksgiving meals, often with extended family. Some of us will be serving meals in shelters. The youth of the church will have delivered boxes of food to former guests at our 13 Salmon Family Shelter. As religious people, both the expression of gratitude for the blessings in our lives and the call to serve and to share our bounty are important. The Thanksgiving holiday has roots in harvest traditions shared by cultures around the world and in the European American history of New England. Most of us know the idealized…

The Progressive and even the non-partisan or “fake” news was filled with the Democratic victories in Virginia, yesterday. All three state-wide offices were won by Democrats and it seemed the lower house of the legislature might turn from red to blue as well. The new Lt. Governor is African American. One of the newly elected legislators is the first out transgender state lawmaker. The State of Maine voted, over their Governor’s objection, to expand the Medicaid program. It has been one year since the last national election. One year since progressives began learning what it feels like not only to…

  “If we do not transform our pain, we will most assuredly transmit it.” -- Richard Rohr Last week I traveled to Washington, DC. It was a trip that had several parts including a board meeting for the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice and reaching at the ordination of a new UU military chaplain. The trip allowed me one free day, which I spent at the new African American Museum of History and Culture. The experience was remarkable. I even learned some new facts, though I consider myself pretty well educated on this history. I did not know that the…

My sermon last Sunday seemed to resonate with many. I want to thank those who wrote to me in response. Let me affirm that holding our hearts open through these divisive days is no small feat. It is a real spiritual discipline, for me and for many of you it seems, to remain true to ourselves and to the values we hold dear. I have had to screen out much of the news this week. The attacks by our national leaders on yet another parent of a dead US soldier would have been unthinkable in other times. Another woman of…

This morning, when I opened my newsfeed and read down through the tragedies of the day, I discovered a collection of images of Dewali, the Hindu festival of lights which begins today. I found myself stopped and scrolling through all the many images of the Dewali lights and remembering that the seasons are turning once again. I found myself so thankful that my attention had been captured, grateful to be reminded to notice the changed light of the early morning sun and the spread of yellow and red on the leaves of the Sweet Gum tree outside my kitchen window.…

Every plane leaving Puerto Rico is full and 80% of them land in Florida. The “natural disaster” of Hurricane Maria has been followed by the human-made disaster of failed emergency support. The response of many on the island has been to leave. Florida with a population of over 1,000,000 citizens of Puerto Rican descent, already, is the destination for many. The Guardian reports surveys suggesting that between 10 and 14% of Puerto Rico’s 3.4 million people are considering moving to the US mainland. US Congressperson, Darren Soto, Florida’s first Puerto Rican representative writes: “Only time will tell whether we have…

The tragic slaughter of human life in Las Vegas calls up in me a demand for a positive and final solution to gun violence and our national love affair with firearms. I want such violence never again to take place. I want our elected leaders to give back every dime they have received from the National Rifle Association. I want them to outlaw individual ownership of assault weapons again. I want to eliminate the phrase “bump-stock” from our vocabulary.  I feel that flood of desire and yet I know that my wants and wishes will not “come to pass.” At best, my rational mind tells me, we…

I get stuck. I confess. Whenever racism dominates the news, as it does so frequently, it gets a response from me. I am like a Pavlovian dog, and I know it. The focus on NFL football players “taking a knee” during this last week is the latest example. A significant number of the players are people of color. And whether the players are Black or White, they “take a knee” to protest the police murders of young African American men. My reaction is solidarity with them...and it is instantaneous. I want to get down on my knee, just as my…

The politics around immigration continue to challenge us to defend the value of a pluralistic America and our dreams for the Beloved Community. This week Attorney General Jeff Sessions visited Portland to berate us as a “Sanctuary City” and to beg us to stop being “the trafficker, smuggler or gang member’s best friend.” At issue is whether our police will help enforce US immigration laws. Oregon’s position has been clear since 1987 when state law made such enforcement by local police illegal. Oregon was the first “Sanctuary State.” In March of this year, the Portland City Council affirmed that position…