Joy as both concept and reality is important to me; in a simple, deep, understated way. Parenthetically, happiness may touch on joy and overlap, but it’s not to be confused or conflated with how I understand joy. Joy is basic and foundational. It’s central to my theology and how I frame and practice hope. It’s … Continue reading Understanding Joy
It feels like every day brings more “unprecedented” news. We are having trouble finding and keeping our footing. We live in a chronic fog of what George Carlin called “Vuja De”. Yet we have guides who can help us regain our orientation. The story of Mary and Martha from the New Testament and legends that … Continue reading Patterns of Wisdom
My friend, Dave, who is a year and a half out from surgery to remove a brain tumor said that in the midst of these difficult times, we can be, each in our own way, a witness to goodness. That’s a good, simple descriptor for how I’ve been trying to navigate the turmoil of the … Continue reading A Witness to Goodness
I have re-turned because of, as Rabbi Carlebach says in song #1011 of the same title as today, because of who you are, what you are, and where you are in your journey. You change your world within you and the world around you through your presence and with your actions You make hope real. … Continue reading Return Again
Hello, Goodbye, Hello, GoodbyeThis is the last service MPUUC will share with Rev. Jim McKinley. It will also be the service where we welcome Rev. Greg Ward back from sabbatical. There is a poignancy in transition. It requires us to reflect and reconcile newly discovered experiences of love and truth with those which lessons built … Continue reading Hello, Goodbye, Hello, Goodbye
Wisdom to remember from a clay tablet a potter gifted Rev. Jim on which she’d inscribed three koans of life advice he’d been given and returned with from his month long journey to Panama. A tablet handed down with three guides for right relationship with life; sounds like a familiar ancient story that had ten, … Continue reading Three Suggestions for the New Year
In the pause of Christmas Eve, we bring light, and our light, to the light of the world. We recall holiday moments that heightened time and gifted notice and memory. We “create” Christmas spirit anew with stories, songs and candles. Join us and linger a while for homemade cookies and cider. 5PM service, no 10AM … Continue reading Christmas Eve “Carols and Candles”
While searching for gifts to give, take a moment to look no further than yourself. Take a holiday from the constant outside messaging of what you don’t have and the internal critique of who you are not. Pause and unwrap the gifts you are as this person, this people, this congregation. Let’s free up some … Continue reading The Gift(s) We Are
My daughter shared that insight in the middle of our raft trip of 24 days through the Grand Canyon in December, 2019. It was cold. I was suffering and the Canyon is the ultimate “no way out only through” experience. “Ya gotta own it, Dad,” where “own” is embrace and love and “it” is me, who … Continue reading You Gotta Own It
We often feel like our lives are being taken over by outside events and influences. The Sunday before Thanksgiving marks the onset of the likelyhood of added holiday season stress and alienation. With gratitude, appreciation and mindful reflection we can reoccupy ourselves and share in the fullness around us. The Zoom link and Order of … Continue reading Preoccupied
