Walking toward our biases
This Sunday for the sermon time I’ll be having an interview/dialogue with Malik Moore. I met Malik back in June at a Race and Justice event hosted by First Unitarian Universalist. We were both a part of a break out group discussing how faith communities might engage the issue. …
Collaboration and Confrontation
The last two mornings I’ve taken part in conversations that have me thinking about how change happens, and the role of collaboration and confrontation. The first was one of the many “Big Table” conversations Tuesday, sponsored by the Columbus Foundation. The question of the day was how we might work…
Stones shouting
“I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.” Luke 19:40, the words of Jesus. Two weeks ago the shore of Lake Michigan between Saint Joseph and South Haven was covered with rocks. We stayed in a cabin my brother and his partner have owned for…
Interview, Renovation, Vacation
Interview This Sunday I’ll be doing an interview/dialogue sermon with Rev. Lane Campbell. Lane is a young white woman who is co-leader of the Columbus chapter of SURJ – Showing Up for Racial Justice. This is the group that helped organize the public action Mark, Austin, and Adam spoke…
Meat in Leviticus
This afternoon I was re-reading Leviticus 19, the chapter that contains the commandment at the crux of the Parable of the Good Samaritan: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” However, after back-pedaling into Leviticus 17, I got wrapped up in the proper slaughtering of animals. After consulting Jacob…
Probing for answers
One of the bright spots in what’s deemed ‘news’ these days is the Juno probe. NASA launched it back in August of 2011 and it is just now making its way to Jupiter. Long trip. It will spend the next 20 months orbiting Jupiter 37 times, collecting all kinds of…
Places with messages
Last week I served as camp pastor at Camp Friedenswald in southern Michigan. Eve and Lily attended as campers and Abbie and Ila and I got to enjoy the “Peaceful Woods” and join in the action. It was a lot of work – ten sermons in one week –…
A story about where we (CDC) come from
Tomorrow folks from Central District Conference (CDC) congregations will be coming to Columbus as the Annual Meeting begins. Here’s a story that has helped me better understand CDC: Joseph Stuckey was born in Berne, Switzerland in 1826 and migrated to the US with his parents when he was five. Joseph…
In the ams of Ali
“My conscious won’t let me go shoot my brother, or some darker people, or some poor hungry people in the mud for big powerful America. And shoot them for what? They never called me nigger, they never lynched me, they didn’t put no dogs on me, they didn’t rob me…
The Great Fiesta yet to come
Today we hosted a lunch at church for the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and their allies. Most of the fresh tomatoes served at US restaurants and sold in supermarkets October through April come from Florida, with a large percentage of those coming from the area around the town of…
