Hopeful Thinking

From a service given at First Parish Church in Fitchburg Massachusetts February 5, 2017 Meditation: Breathe. As you draw air in and out feel the rush of oxygen and nitrogen as it whooshes through your nostrils. As you exhale picture yourself sliding and sinking down into your seat. Feel the weight of your shoulders and allow them to relax. Feel the tension in your legs. Allow them to release. And breathe… Picture standing with a brick wall in front of you. You can’t see the top of it. You can’t see around it. For all you know it’s as thick as it is high. You could rightly decide that this wall is impenetrable. But one thing you do know: you know this wall is standing in your way. Would you push against it? Would you go and get a battering ram? A bulldozer? Would you design a weapon to explode it? These won’t work. Somehow you know this. But you are not defeated. You get a sudden inspiration to do something radical. You slowly turn away from the wall and look at the open space...

            I ended up in a perfect little church. The Universe saw fit to guide me into a version of ministry so attuned to my calling to serve the City of Fitchburg I can tell It knows me better than I know myself. I came to intern at First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church of Fitchburg in my second year of seminary as a Student Minister under the supervision of its then half-time Minister. Following his departure for a full-time position (understandably for his growing family, but disappointing nonetheless), I was kept on as the Student Minister for the remainder of my internship. I was assigned a replacement supervisor, the beloved Rev. Susan Suchocki Brown of the First Church UU of Leominster. At the end of my internship, First Parish officially decided to become a “Lay-Led” Congregation while retaining me as its Spiritual Coordinator. At First Parish (as with a growing number of congregations nationwide) ‘minister’ i...

The Apostle Paul   5-67 CE             In a survey of roughly 100 attendees at the 2011 British New Testament Conference in Nottingham, England. Only 51% felt Colossians was actually written by the apostle Paul. 1 Split right down the middle. Clearly nothing is certain, yet I find the debate makes an impact on my approach to the text. Epistles like Romans, 1 Thessalonians, etc., texts which scholars do not debate their authenticity, these somehow seem easier. Attempting to discern a document that is a 50/50 toss up regarding authenticity forces me to conclude the possibility of an agenda in the true author’s intent, should it not be Paul himself. It places a coating over the entire text for me. That is not to say it doesn’t have its value, both sociological as well as theological. But it asks me to read between the lines and to my heart when examining them. This becomes especially problematic for me considering the...

I have been feeling flickers of recognition regarding my calling. I know that sounds dramatic, but it’s also specific. That’s exactly how it feels like. Like flashes of recognition. An Ooh! I get it! kind of sensation. Since beginning the Hopeful Thinking column especially I have noticed moments when I know I’m saying the words I truly mean to say. And people are listening. Maybe not a lot, but just those stalwart few are making an impact on my confidence. I’ve had a lifelong “sensation” that I would later describe as a “calling” once ministerial language became available to me. It’s unfortunate that this description also renders a vague sense of destiny; I don’t conclude that. It is what it is. The sensation was an inner directive to provide comfort on the individual and community level, and the word community will mean wider things over time. It’s become specified into a directive of empowerment as a vocational term. Empowerment is the intersection of both the religious and the s...

Hold a jawbreaker candy in your hand (or imagine one) as you read the following... Picture your life as a candy like this. Unlike this brand new one neatly wrapped in your hand, you life is somewhere in the middle of this sweet reality. Some layers already gone. Plenty left to go. Unknown. Honor the yet-revealed layers. They are as much a part of your story as the layers which have already been sucked away, or the one visible now. Picture the layers within. Imagine the colors of yourself that are hidden beneath. The stories you have yet to tell, the facts about yourself you have yet to discover. Imagine this simple piece of layered candy as a symbol of your intentionality. Imagine it as a prayer. A wish. A wish for better service to others through self-awareness, through the fearless exploration of self. Layer by layer by layer. For who we are to others is based entirely on who we are to ourselves. Inside both the candy as well as us is a potential far grander than the outside...

It appears only once in the Bible. Which I find to be deeply interesting since, in my opinion, it is the epicenter of the whole Christian faith. Only Luke tells us of this story from the cross when Jesus prayed aloud, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” as they tore his clothes for souvenirs among them. There are many ways to view Christianity. Far more than the number of denominations, cults, or schisms that have ever, or will ever, exist. Every religion is a spiritual opinion regarding the Ultimate Reality and what It has manifested in the world. Every opinion is different, even when they agree. My opinion about Christianity is that we cannot know the truth of most of it. We can opine, deduce, speculate, capitulate, and ultimately, agree to disagree. That is one principle thrust of its sacred gift. For I believe the earthly purpose of the Christian message is Relationship. We are meant to learn to get along with one another, not just in spite of, but because of...

There is an app for that. In fact, there are several. There are encrypted apps which help people anonymously raise a red flag when something isn't right. Secure email, file sharing systems, disappearing message apps. ProPublica has a webpage dedicated to listing ways in which people can securely and anonymously leak information to them. Staffers in the White House are using an app right now called Confide, according the the Washington Post. Ostensibly to securely talk to one another. But one wonders exactly who’s confiding in whom. The conversation White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer had with his staff about leaks was leaked. We are living in an age where our vast connectivity and technological advancement—while at times contentious—is making it easier for people to stand up to oppression and harder for oppressors to hold onto their power. Control was once easier to maintain with fear propaganda, the swift punishment of dissent, and the systematic separation of people. But ...

It didn’t even try to run away from me when I first saw it. My six year old hands easily snatched up the little green frog on the ground at my feet. (The same over-curious hands which also sucked the puddles dry with the house’s central vacuum cleaner the week before, destroying it utterly. The hose was just long enough to reach out into the biggest puddle in the driveway.) I was proud of myself for saving the frog. Clearly it had been abandoned by its mother. There was no doubt this frog wouldn’t survive without intervention.     I went into the house to find a container for the baby frog’s new home. I protected it from running away in the meantime by tightly wrapping it up in a thick towel. My little brother was only two so there were still remnant baby food jars fulfilling all matter of utilitarian tasks in the house: paperclip holder, safety pin holders, beads, thumb tacks, rubber bands. I chose to evict the rubber bands from their jar by eminent domain in service to our n...