Hopeful Thinking

Take a deep breath with me...  We have heard the notion that we are spiritual beings having a human experience.  But what might be the implications of that thought?  Are we eternal?  Are we divine in nature?  If this humanity is not our regular experience, what is?   I forward the premise, for the purpose of this thought, that there is no line of demarcation where God ends and We begin.  If everything in the universe is One, and even mathematically this is provably so, how can one extract the ingredients of a soup?   Pick an Object.  Any object.  A napkin, a wine glass, a ring on your finger, a flower or an icicle.  Just look at it for a moment and take a deep breath…   Human culture has used everyday objects as symbols for greater ideas throughout history.  Crosses, rocks, fabric, metals, the elements.  They all represent not only themselves and their functions, but added l...

Excerpts from the Coming of the Light service First Parish Church, Fitchburg, MA  December 28, 2014  I. Meditation - Fanning the Light Within II. End of Meditation Prayer   III. Affirmation IV. Sermon - The Season for the Reason   V. Prayer I. Meditation - Fanning the Light Within   Focus, if you will, on a lit candle before you.  See the flame, flickering and flowing upward from the wick.  Keep your eyes there and watch it closely for a moment as it glows... Sometimes we feel lost at sea.  Sometimes we feel adrift and unknowing, alone and seemingly unloved.  We are like darkened lighthouses, unlit and untended, a steeple with no light, saving no one and nothing.  Guiding no one from the danger of the rocks, shepherding nothing into the harboring safety of community.   But in this next moment, close your eyes and see behind your closed lids the small flame still floating before you.  This is your ...

The Rhetorical Value of the Gospels:  Establishing a Platform of Empathy An examination of the use of rhetoric in the Zacchaeus story Wil Darcangelo, Master of Divinity Program Andover Newton Theological School, Newton Centre, Massachu setts December 17, 2014 Luke 19:1-10  (NASB)  Zacchaeus Converted H e entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 And there was a man called by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and he was rich. 3 Zacchaeus was trying to see who Jesus was, and was unable because of the crowd, for he was small in stature. 4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree in order to see Him, for He was about to pass through that way. 5 When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” 6 And he hurried and came down and received Him rejoicing. 7 When they saw it, they all began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to be the guest of a man who ...