Readings


The Call to Worship today is a parable about Love

Once upon a time, there was a secluded island where all the intangibles lived. Happiness, Sadness, Anger, Trust, Pride, and many more.  Also on the island were qualities that humans have access to.  Things like love, and knowledge, wealth, vanity, and many more.

As long as they lived, everyone in the world was able to have them. But one day the intangibles discovered that the island was going to sink, so they all had to leave as soon as possible or die, and with their deaths, everyone in the world would lose them forever. All the feelings and qualities quickly began to prepare their boats to leave as soon as possible.  And Love did too, she prepared her boat, but then she decided to stay until the last minute.

But when the moment came and Love wanted to leave, her boat was gone. Someone else must have taken it.  Love started to worry and then suddenly it saw Wealth.  As Wealth was passing by in its most beautiful boat, Love said, “Wealth, can you take me with you?” Wealth answered, “No, I can’t. My board is filled with gold and silver, and sadly there is no place here for you.”  Next Love saw Vanity who was also passing by, “Vanity, please help me!” pleaded Love. “I can’t help you, Love. You are all wet and would damage my boat if I take you in,” Vanity answered. Sadness was close by so Love asked for help, “Sadness, let me go with you.” Sadness unwillingly responded, “Oh..Love, I am so sad that I prefer to go alone!”

Happiness passed by Love too, but she was so happy and cheerful that she did not hear when Love called her! 

Love was in disbelief.  She was doomed to go down with the island, but then suddenly there was an elderly voice, “Come, Love, I will take you.” Love became so happy that she forgot to ask the elder her name.  When they arrived at dry land, the elder went on her own way. 

A little later, Love came across Knowledge and asked if she knew who was the elder that helped her. “Oh yes,” answered Knowledge.  It was Time.”  “Time? But why did Time help me?” asked Love. “Because only Time really understands valuable Love is,” answered Knowledge.  

And that’s the way is.  And that’s the way it always shall be.

Lightly adapted from Chris Kratzer

Perhaps this explains it.

The heart of the matter.

If you're willing.

Listen closely.

The atheist knows the Christian better than the Christian does.

The black person knows whiteness better than a white person does.

The LGBTQ person knows heterosexuality better than a heterosexual person does.

A woman knows masculinity better than a man does.

How can this be?

Because the oppressed know everything about the oppressor. Every detail, every nuance, every layer. Especially what the oppressed know is that the oppressor acts from fear of truth

So, what is the truth that so terrifies the oppressor?

The truth, that they aren't “special.”

They aren't entitled to or deserving of anything that other people aren't. They aren't more divine, more favored, more valuable, more righteous, more capable, more dignified, more holy, or more worthy than any other. There's nothing special about them. They are who they are, no better than anyone else.

This is the nightmare of the oppressor, to face the truth and a world aligned to the reality that they aren't “special.”

In fact, the message of Jesus to the oppressors of his day was, “You aren't special.” He got in their face and demanded, “The first will be last, and the last will be first.” “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” “Consider others as more important than yourself.”

And so they flogged and crucified him.

Hoping to erase him and this truth from the planet.

The attraction to racism is feeling “special.” The attraction to homophobia is feeling “special.” The attraction to misogyny is feeling “special.” The attraction to patriarchy is feeling “special.” The attraction to power is feeling “special.” The attraction to wealth is feeling “special.”

That's why the oppressor desperately fights against the true revelation of history, emotional maturity, education, science, free-thinking, equality, freedom, compassion, justice, and truth.

They want a society that is incapable of discerning oppression. Incapable of reflecting reality.

That's why they hate the confidence and intelligence of science and education, and fight it with ignorance and condemnation.

So may we, with great passion, shout this Gospel to the oppressed and align the world to its truth... “You are ALL sacred!" "No one is any better, whole, holy, divine, favored, good, valuable, righteous, or worthy than you. You are beautifully and wonderfully made, as is."

And let us, with great bravery, speak this arrogance-leveling, system-breaking, privilege-toppling truth to the oppressors and align the world to it... “You're not special.” “You've never been special.” "And no matter what you say, do, or demand, you'll never be special.” Not - one – bit – more - than - anyone - else.

May it be so.

Entanglement, by Kate Forster

I think it's a deep consolation to know that spiders dream, that monkeys tease predators, that dolphins have accents, that lions can be scared silly by a lone mongoose, that otters hold hands, and ants bury their dead. 

That there isn't their life and our life. Nor your life and my life.

That it's just one teetering and endless thread and all of us, all of us entangled with it as deep as entanglement goes.

What is good religion?  How would we know it if we saw it?  

I think any good religion recognizes at the start that all of us are born into a kind of covenant with each other and with the Earth.  Just by virtue of being alive, we are inextricably and inescapably bound, deeply related in body and in soul, literally, symbolically, physically, and spiritually woven into the fabric of something infinitely larger than we are.  And because that is true, good religion firmly and lovingly holds us accountable for who we are, and what we do.

Good religion reminds us that actions and ideologies have consequences, so awareness is essential.  And, because awareness is never complete, humility is a virtue.  In fact, humility may be the highest virtue of all when it comes to living peacefully in a diverse human and non-human global community.

I think good religion puts very little emphasis on absolute truth, and a great deal of emphasis on religious questions.  Questions like “What are the roots of caring and love in a competitive world?”  “Where do we find models of love and compassion that are not exploitation?  That are not just symbolic?”  

“How can I be me in a way that leaves you free to be you?” 

I think good religion keeps asking those questions, even when the answers aren’t obvious, because questions like those keep the focus here in this life, in this world.  Good religion doesn’t waste much energy worrying about an unknowable afterlife.  

I think good religion stays grounded in reality.  Religion, when it’s doing its job, helps us live in right relationship to reality: dedicated to truth, deeply suspicious of wishful thinking, not reliant on mere passion or ideologies over the facts.

Good religion does not ask us to turn off our brains in order to accept some absurdity about God, heaven, hell, the will of God, or anything else about which we know diddly-squat!  

Good religion doesn’t tell us that our bodies are inherently sinful, our desires inherently bad, our pleasures not equally as full of grace as our toil, our love any less worthy because of who might receive it.

I think good religion is able to sing praises.  Good religion is comfortable in blessing what is worthy and good.  Good religion is brave enough to name evil for what it is.  And, good religion is willing to sacrifice for the sake of love and justice, because good religion knows we are all in this together.  Not just you and me but the birds in the air, the animals in the fields, the fungi in the soil, the quality of the air we all breathe.

I think good religion arises from a deep knowing that it is love that sustains us, holds us, fuels us, and heals us.  And good religion knows that the first and primary ingredient of love….  Is respect.  Good religion reminds us of what is possible, and gives hope that it might become so.


Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde (Pastoral Prayer - Jan. 26, 2025.)

"Let me make one final plea. Mr. President, millions have put their trust in you. And as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families, some who fear for their lives. And the people, the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meatpacking plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants, and work the night shifts in hospitals, they — they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues, gurdwara and temples.

I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away, and that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were all once strangers in this land. May God grant us the strength and courage to honor the dignity of every human being, to speak the truth to one another in love and walk humbly with each other and our God for the good of all people, the good of all people in this nation and the world."

Sermon by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1967. (Call to Worship - Jan. 1, 2025.)

 “One day, one night, a juror came to Jesus and he wanted to know what he could do to be saved.  Jesus didn’t get bogged down on the kind of isolated approach of what you shouldn’t do.  Jesus didn’t say, “Now, Nicodemus, you must stop lying.”  He didn’t say, “Now, Nicodemus, now you must not commit adultery.”  He didn’t say, “Now, Nicodemus, you must stop cheating if you are doing that.”  He didn’t say, Nicodemus, you must stop drinking liquor if you are doing that excessively.”  He said something different, because Jesus realized something basic: that if a man will lie, he will steal.  And if a man will steal, he will kill.  So instead of just getting bogged down on one thing, Jesus looked at him and said, “Nicodemus, you must be born again.”

                In other words, “Your whole structure must be changed.”  A nation that will keep people in slavery for 244 years will “thingify” them and make them things.  And therefore, they will exploit them and poor people generally economically.  And a nation that will exploit economically will have to have foreign investments and everything else, and it will have to use its military might to protect them.  All of these problems are tied together.

                What I’m saying today is that we must go from this convention and say, “America, you must be born again!”

New Day’s Lyric – by Amanda Gorman

"May this be the day
We come together.
Mourning, we come to mend,
Withered, we come to weather,
Torn, we come to tend,
Battered, we come to better.
Tethered by this year of yearning,
We are learning
That though we weren’t ready for this,
We have been readied by it.
We steadily vow that no matter
How we are weighed down,
We must always pave a way forward.

This hope is our door, our portal.
Even if we never get back to normal,
Someday we can venture beyond it,
To leave the known and take the first steps.
So let us not return to what was normal,
But reach toward what is next.

What was cursed, we will cure.
What was plagued, we will prove pure.
Where we tend to argue, we will try to agree,
Those fortunes we forswore, now the future we foresee,
Where we weren’t aware, we’re now awake;
Those moments we missed
Are now these moments we make,
The moments we meet,
And our hearts, once all together beaten,
Now all together beat.

Come, look up with kindness yet,
For even solace can be sourced from sorrow.
We remember, not just for the sake of yesterday,
But to take on tomorrow.

We heed this old spirit,
In a new day’s lyric,
In our hearts, we hear it:
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne.
Be bold, sang Time this year,
Be bold, sang Time,
For when you honor yesterday,
Tomorrow ye will find.
Know what we’ve fought
Need not be forgot nor for none.
It defines us, binds us as one,
Come over, join this day just begun.
For wherever we come together,
We will forever overcome."

Reasons for Joining a Church, by Sharad Yadav

As I try to remember why the hell I do this for a living, here is a handful of reasons, dear friends, to consider joining a church: 

1. To join a church is to commit to a social circle you do not get to choose and can therefore show you whether your spirituality is bullshit or not
2. Joining a church is a way of practicing - among a small group of people over a significant period of time - what you’d like the world to be like
3. To join a church is to live in rebellion against the neoliberal and capitalist forces which are brainwashing you into making your consumer desire the center of the world, reducing all your experiences of the world (including all the people in it) to instruments and resources.
4. Joining a church is to organize your life around a time to confess your limitations, culpability and imperfections together with other people so that you can get used to receiving divine forgiveness and hope in response to your honesty.
5. To join a church is to resist all traditional loyalties to state, party, culture, family or affinity in an act of loyalty to a group that transcends all natural categories
6. Joining a church organizes your financial priorities around supporting an inclusive community for vulnerable people . . . that you actually have to live with.
7. To join a church is to cultivate an environment unlike your home, work or play where your life is not measured according to any other purpose or goal than to discover and enjoy your own humanity.
8. Joining a church is a way of maintaining healthy skepticism about human knowledge and capacities in the language of divine mystery.
9. To join a church is to cultivate an imagination for how your unique talents and creative potential can be offered on purpose for love instead of money
10. Joining a church is a life lesson in how to deal with assholes without retaliating, dehumanizing or running away (in the desperate hope of not becoming an asshole)