It is wonderful to be here with you this morning. I grew up in this church. My mother and grandmother used to bring my little sister and me. We didn’t come every Sunday, because we lived about an hour away out in Dundee. We lived in a trailer park. It…

  Yesterday in Fuller Hall, we were doing some training in non-violence here at the church. And as I was watching that space change hour-by-hour from a place of instruction, to a place where everyone was eating, then back to place of instruction, I was reminded of a day in…

In a world that seems so broken, what does it look like to place ourselves, to call ourselves, to joy? Might that, paradoxically, help us to be more present to all that brokenness?

  In this season of national unease, there is something to be said for cultivating a spirit of gratitude for the gifts we have been given. Why not start, then, with the man who now occupies the White House?

  Thank you choir. Sunshine. You should know that that piece was originally planned for the Sunday following the election. We changed it for reasons that are probably obvious. Are we ready for sunshine yet? Are we even seeing any sunshine on the horizon? It was 19th century Unitarian minister,…

This is urgent, and uncomfortable. The forces of hatred and violence are on the rise around the world, and they will inevitably start finding a seductive voice, even to our ears. Since being Unitarian Universalist doesn’t give us ethical superpowers, how can we prepare ourselves and our community to resist…

How are we being asked to respond to the times we are living in? That is always the question, of course, but it comes with new urgency these days. The times ask us to be clear about what is most important and then to move from that place.

This week, I have come to believe that owning the right shoes is important. In watching neighbors and friends who lack the ideal footwear slipping and sliding and sloshing around these roads and sidewalks, I appreciated the fine, Oregon-based footwear I own. But nothing lasts forever. Shoes wear down. But…

As we enter the New Year, what on-going spiritual work are we called to address? How will both the movement and the stuckness in our world inform and shape our priorities in our work for justice?

We all know the story, the old, old, deep story. A child, unknown, unplanned for, is delivered into the lives and the arms of the least suspecting parents. The child’s new parents travel great distances, to lands far, far, away, to settle with the child and to make a new…

The miracle of new birth is persistent. Sources of hope are born each day. Our liberal faith asks us to recognize and celebrate that truth. The candles we light push back not only the dark but also despair. We live into the miracle of hope as we hold silence and…

In this time of getting to know all of you and of letting all of you get to know me, I have started to hear some murmurings here and there—not rumors, so much—just bits and pieces of stories. And who doesn’t love a good story, right? I mean, I’m the…

  "How can we be grateful enough?” Asks the text of that beautiful anthem. How can our minds and bodies be grateful enough? Oh, we have managed to survive storms and we have escaped the wolves along the way, to quote again from the anthem. Our strength, our hard work…

This has been long and difficult week, good people. If you are like me, since the results of Tuesday’s election have become clear, I’ve found myself going through all kinds of emotions. I should say up front that while this church is not in the business of endorsing candidates and…

    As part of my own preparation for this Sunday, I read all of the things that you all wrote about First Unitarian on those “steeples” that are decorating this sanctuary. So many spoke to me. “We are such an important beacon of tolerance and pluralism.” “It gives a…

  Time passes quickly, too quickly. It’s hard to believe that I’ve been serving you for 18 years now. During this time we have marched together in protests as far away as Seattle (for the WTO protest), and Miami (for the FTAA protest), and to New York City (for the…

  A few years ago, the New Yorker magazine reprinted a notice they found from a small newpaper in Virginia. “IMPORTANT NOTICE,” it read in bold, capital letters. “If you are one of the hundreds of parachuting enthusiasts who bought our Easy Sky Diving book, please make the following correction.…

I’d like to say again what a wonderful experience it has been to be welcomed here. I’ve been getting to know many of you, and I look forward to getting to know even more of you soon. So maybe it’s fitting, in this month of forgiving, that I begin by…

Most weeks as part of parish concerns people are invited to write down their prayer requests to be held by the ministers and lay ministers of this church. Those requests offer a glimpse of what all of us are carrying as we gather here in community every Sunday. Prayers for…

  To begin, a story:   A man was climbing a mountain on a foggy day, and no doubt because of the poor visibility, he strayed off the path, slipped, and started sliding and rolling toward the edge of a cliff. As he fell over, with an enormous effort, he…

We had wonderful music this summer, but it is so nice to have the choir back, filling the sanctuary with their voices and those lyrics that help call us back into community. Ubi Caritas…Where there is kindness and understanding toward others... where there is love… “Deus ibi est…that is where…