Hopeful Thinking

 I am a bit of a US Constitution geek, I must admit.  I am absolutely fascinated and moved by it.  I have to confess also that I cried during the theatrical presentation at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia when I visited there one summer.  A single actor surrounded by a series of 360 degree projections explaining the massive human social innovation embodied in a document named the Constitution and its amendments, known as the Bill of Rights.   This was groundbreaking stuff in human historical terms.  Never before seen on the planet Earth.  The kids are now going to run the candy store, folks.  People had been fighting for freedom across the globe for hundreds of years already by this point, yes.  But this was the first time a new government had attempted to build their own egalitarian, democratic country, governed by the people, from the foundation up.  Think of that for a moment.  Imagine that point of time in...

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 ...