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What follows are the beginnings of ruminations I’m sure will continue for a good, long time to come. Life, death, connectedness….I’m interested in what folks think — I preached this at the Sugarloaf Congregation of UU’s in Germantown, MD on 2 October 2011. Part of the Big Picture Last October, I stood near the [...] “…[W]hat we are not to do in the face of pain-filled isolation is to rush people through their pain, skip over the hard parts of their stories, or assert our core testimony about a God who is always present” (Koppel/Hopkins; Grounded in the Living Word: The Old Testament and Pastoral Care Practices. 126). I [...] CPE – that is, Clinical Pastoral Education – is really hard. Those of you who know about the credentialing process for ordination know this already. But many of you have never heard the term, “CPE,” I am sure. Sometimes I explain CPE as “chaplaincy internship” or “pastoral care internship,’ but it is so much more [...] Today, I suggest one possible way of looking at the Source, the All, that to which we sing in Hymn 123, “Spirit of Life.” I suggest that we consider this as the Primal, Never-ending Creativity. Further, we can reflect and actually be this Source when we engage our own creativity. Two ways of being this [...] Last week, in an informal, Hebrew Bible-related roundtable lunch discussion, one of my classmates called me out. “Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God?” he asked as he pointed at me. “Yes,” I said, and just as he started to turn and relax, I added, “But I don’t believe that he’s uniquely [...] As I have written here before, on a beautiful day in October, I was privileged to experience my father’s ashes, the dust of his body, swirling around me in the wind, catching in my clothes, entering my lungs, and traveling slowly down Laurel Run, down, down, down towards the Chesapeake. With poignant joy and gentle [...] Some incomplete thoughts on the nature of spirituality and religion as I understand them: The God of my understanding is the tissue of the universe: The connections among all things and the unfolding of existence. Spiritual practice—ritual, meditation, worship, etc.—is for the development of presence and wisdom. It is for the benefit of humanity and [...] August 24, 2010 This time of grief, in calm, contemplative moments, is unearthing an attention to life as well as to death. The reflection that follows is in no way unique or even particularly original. In fact, it is shot through with echoes and streaks of many religions, the teachings of many traditions. It is [...] Hello, friends. I don’t have much to say at this point, but thought it was important to explain that my absence is not due to blog fatigue or abandonment. Rather, I am grieving the death of my father. He died early in the morning of this pst Wednesday, and I have been with family ever [...] At church last Sunday, the sermon concerned sacredness. What is sacred? What is “the Sacred”? I’ve been thinking about these questions quite a lot lately, and more so as my family has come together to be with my father in what is either his last few days of life or a particularly difficult period of [...] |
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