“Come on in, take a seat, Come on in, take a seat with Love” “The presence of our love is here” Our voluntaries this morning speak of a joyful, ecstatic welcome, welcoming that great Spirit of Love. And it is tangible. We can feel it in the atmosphere, right here…

Today’s the day we can decide to mend the fabric we divide…  Today is the day…  The church is a community of both memory and hope.  Memory.  The church brings forward the wisdom, the stories of the past. It also brings forward the structures and the habits of the past.   Memory.…

“If we agree in love, there is no disagreement that can do us any injury, but if we do not, no other agreement can do us any good. Let us endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit in the bonds of peace.”   If we agree in love, no disagreement…

Thank you, Darrell Grant, for letting us use this music and the mural it’s been paired with, for our voluntary this morning. And thank you to our musicians here on the chancel for the art you’ve brought to us this morning. It has all demonstrated so beautifully the importance of…

There's something, something, inside of meScreaming, let me live out loudLet me live, let me live Let me live out loud. Afraid to be strongAnd too strong to be afraidIs anybody near me?Does anybody feel me?Let me live out loud (Let me live out loud)[1] Let me live out loud.…

Seeing is the pearl of great price, wrote Annie Dillard. To see. To witness.  Do you remember the famous image of justice? The woman holding the scales…blindfolded, so she’s not tempted to tip the scales in favor of one or the other party…equal treatment before the law…she is presented as…

Come Sunday…ah, Come Sunday, that’s the day…  Lord Almighty, God of love, please look down and see my people through. Come Sunday.  The lyrics of that Duke Ellington masterpiece really resonate as we start this New Year.  “see my people through”  The news of the world is not that good.  Covid…

Overheard a conversation among a small group of people this week. “Happy New Year,” says one person, “at least we know 2022 will be better than the last two…” A noticeable and sustained pause descends on the group. The person speaking, picking up on this, haltingly says, “Well, at least…

Bring that dream to life…Lord I pray…  Won’t you bring that dream to life  I have a dream today…(that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character).”  I…

Before going any further, I want to offer my deepest gratitude to Carolyn, Hathaway, Dana, and Bill for contributing to this service today, sharing a bit of your story as part of this wider story of Reproductive Justice. In preparation for this service, I have been most blown away by…

Rev. Abhi Janamanchi Rev. Bill and Rev. Janamanchi will reflect on the experience of trying to lead toward Beloved Community, of equipping those we serve to make that journey and preparing ourselves to survive it.

This is the longest night. We have arrived at this moment as the Wheel of the Year has turned again. Gradually, the night has grown, stretching out, getting comfortable. The word solstice comes from Latin sol for sun and stice, for standing. This etymology describes the sun standing still in…

There is this saying in the field of religious studies that goes “science is like prose, and religion is like poetry: they can both be sources of truth, but speak in different rhythms.” Though I’m not sure how far this metaphor extends, it is used to justify a “both/and” perspective…

“I can hear the angels sing…”  Thank you, Courtney…and choir…  I can hear the angels sing…  “…that glorious song of old,  From angels bending near the earth  To touch their harps of gold.”  It Came Upon the Midnight Clear  Well…if you’re looking at the same weather forecast I am…a Midnight…

This is the season when the interplay of day and night, of light and darkness is much with us. The time when nights lengthen toward the Solstice…next Tuesday…when the predictable miracle will occur …and the days will begin to lengthen again. This is a time of waiting when the spiritual…

The choir will sing Poulenc's Christmas Motets.  There will also be music by Flor Peeters.

“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.”  Could it really be that simple?  Just let the soft animal…

Our readings this morning tell us: Do not rush the coming of the sun. Do not crave the lengthening of the day. We are called to pay attention. Celebrate the darkness. Here and now. We are called to pay attention. In recent years, this work of paying attention to the…

In our reading the morning, the poet Joy Harjo says: “Let’s remember to thank the grower of food The picker, the driver, The sun and the rain. Let’s remember to thank each maker of stitch And layer of pattern, The dyer of color In the immense house of beauty and…

Love is the doctrine of this church.  The liberal church…this church…is often understood to have freedom at its center. Freedom from the rigidity of creeds. Freedom from hierarchical religious authority.  Freedom “from.”  But that is to misunderstand the tradition out of which we come.  And I believe it is also…

There’s so much to be thankful for…  Gratitude is our spiritual theme this month and there is so much to be thankful for this morning.  I am looking out at some of your faces…here in our sanctuary…after more than 18thmonths.  Halleluiah. That itself is reason enough for gratitude!  The folks here had…

We will remember those in our community who have died in the last year and be graced with Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem in D minor.

Love is not an object or a commodity. It's not a person, place, or thing. It's not a noun. Love is a process that needs our attention. Like an art, we create love when we attend to it and make a home for it in ourselves and in our world.…

Justice is what love looks like when it speaks in public.  Justice is what love looks like in public.  It was ten years ago, 2011, and Dr. Cornell West was preaching in the Rankin Chapel on the Howard University campus. His visit had been well publicized and there were more…

“Let your light shine.” Last week, Reverend Bill called us to be aware--sometimes even wary--of the lenses we wear that add another filter between us and that light, impacting how we meet it. That light, that sacred spark, that Spirit of Love that shines on all of us and can…

Let it rain. Let the love pour down. Open the floodgates of heaven.  Is that the way it works? Is the love always there? Ready to pour down? On all of us? The good people and the people we see as evil? On all of us? Reliable and undiscriminating…like the…