I wish to focus on what I believe is the most fundamental essence of who we are and how we navigate this world. One of the most influential books about this question of what is driving me and you, what makes church appealing is Ronald Rolheiser’s book, The Holy Longing, published in 1999. Rolheiser is […]
Halfway between the fall equinox and the winter solstice, when the ghosts and ghouls of Halloween appear on our doorsteps, is a time regarded in many cultures as one when the veils between this world and the next are thin or even lifted. We will mark the occasion, known variously as All Souls or All […]
With so much focus on immigration today, what might we learn from the efforts of many today to secure and lock down our borders? What happens in that lock down, on our physical borders or the borders of difference and identity? Who gets locked in and who is locked out? And who holds the keys? […]
My title does it, but why do I put poetry and prayer together? Are they similar? How so? Very good questions. And by the way, can you define what poetry is, or what a poem is? Or for that matter, what constitutes a prayer? We all think we can recognize them when we see them, […]
How many people do you really know? Do you agree with Joan Chittister? Who has written, “…We are becoming a world of cardboard figures, entombed in technology, living in hermetically sealed personal planets. We don’t really know anybody anymore, and nobody really knows us.” We will take a close look at a world famous individual […]
When moving to Wisconsin in 1970, we were required to take a course in Wisconsin history to sustain teaching certification. I learned then what the Wisconsin Idea was all about. In recent state history, the concept has taken on challenges by changes in state government, but remains intact. I have been surprised more than once […]
Perfection is the preoccupation of millions of Americans. The quest for perfection is a widespread and feverish affair in a consumer society. We are all flawed, designed with handicaps. Often it is our infirmities and imperfections that are our greatest gifts. If Jesus actually said: Be Ye perfect, he was having an off day. Phil […]
Because no one has seen God, religion can only use metaphors to try to describe what God is like. Buddhists. Christians. Muslims. Sikhs. Confucians. Taoists. Hindus. They all employ metaphors. They say, “Look at THAT and you can understand God is.” But some people have never been offered a metaphor that makes sense to them, […]
My sermon on this Sunday will examine the spirituality there may be in laughter and humor–including that of Groucho Marx. But, from the title, we may have a visitor or two who thinks the sermon will be about Karl Marx. So maybe I should have called it “God, Grace, and Groucho.” But then I figured, […]
Tony’s sermon on this Sunday is about what people sometimes call thinking outside the box, moving outside the grid, or jumping the rails of conventional thinking. It’s also sometimes referred to, simply, as a paradigm shift. Whatever we might call it, though, it is the foundation stone for almost every important movement, cultural change, scientific […]