The Pulpiteer

Religion without spirit forgets the fire. Spirit without religion forgets the hearth. Religion without spirit stagnates and calcifies. Spirit without religion drifts and evaporates. A community that holds the tension between them becomes sacred. Religion without spirit hardens and cracks. Spirit without religion melts and runs away. A community that holds them in balance becomes a vessel for truth. Religion without spirit becomes brittle and hollow. Spirit without religion becomes scattered and thin. Only a community willing to bear the tension can flourish. Religion without spirit forgets fire. Spirit without religion forgets the hearth. Let us claim this hearth here for its rightful purpose. To hold the fire that we are.

You remember the children's rhyme, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." Sometimes this landed as good and helpful advice, not to take on the harm that others wanted to inflict on us with their words. Other times, it just feels deeply untrue. For many of us some of the most painful hurts we've ever received have been delivered mostly through words. So, we'll spend some time with this worthy paradox - and hopefully leave with a deepened sense of stewardship over our own utterances.

What if AI isn't an enemy, but an ally in the search for wisdom? That's what we'll do our best to explore in this episode. So join Mimas and I as we try to develop a skin-to-silicon covenant and approach the event horizon that is the divine.

Join us as we honor, celebrate, and reflect on the Mexican tradition of the Ofrenda here in the heart of Texas and in the time of Dia de los Muertos - the Day of the Dead. What can modern westerners learn from these indigenous roots that we sorely need in this day and age?

It's easy to nurture gratitude for our joys. But what does it look like, what could it mean, what could it lead to... if we can discover how to nurture gratitude for our sorrows? Could it be part of the narrow path to wise elderhood that we've been longing for?

If the science teaches us, that through both confirmation bias and negativity bias, we overemphasize the negative and the dangerous - and that we amplify this with news and media and social media... What is the appropriate spiritual response? Might not an intentional focus on positivity be, not an act of naivety, but an act of informed courage? Let's dig in and wrestle with this worthy conundrum.

"Just remember the world is not a playground but a schoolroom. Life is not a holiday but an education. One eternal lesson for us all: to teach us how better we should love"

Unitarianism began as a heretical protest against 'the church': God is One, not Three. And to this day - Unitarian Christians and other explicitly unitarian denominations vastly outnumber Unitarian Universalists (UU''s). Not to mention that the really big slices of the American religious pie are all explicitly Trinitarian sects of Christianity, except for the really big slice of unaffiliated folks (None's or Spiritual but not Religious - SBNR) - So, as much as we love our heresies - I have to ask. Is this label of Unitarianism still serving us? Do we really care how many pieces folks want to carve God into? 0, 1, 3, 100, 1000, even i (the square root of -1) - how ever you slice up God - you're welcome here.

Maybe nothing is more salient this week - how do we listen? how do we show up with one another? are we seeking understanding or are we trying to show how right and clever we are?

Join us for our annual water communion ceremony and a short message about building belonging.

In this final episode of our 8 part series on Love at the Center - we'll look at the thing itself: Love. Join Kenneth Witherspoon (Mr. Spoon) and myself for this tour of the mysterious. Mr. Spoon's subtitle is: When Love Becomes Diety...

Join us for special guest Lou Snead as we continue our eight part series on Love at the Center, with our next shared value: JUSTICE!

Join us for part 6 of an 8 part series exploring the official "Principles & Purposes" of the Unitarian Universalist Association. Love at the Center has 6 shared values surrounding it, the next one we will explore is Generosity.

Join us for part 5 of an 8 part series exploring the official "Principles & Purposes" of the Unitarian Universalist Association. Love at the Center has 6 shared values surrounding it, the next one we will explore is Pluralism.

Join us for part 4 of an 8 part series exploring the official "Principles & Purposes" of the Unitarian Universalist Association. Love at the Center has 6 shared values surrounding it, the third one we will explore is Transformation.

Join us for part 2 of an 8 part series exploring the official "Principles & Purposes" of the Unitarian Universalist Association. 'Love at the Center' has 6 shared values surrounding it, the first one we will explore is Interdependence.

Join us for part 1 of an 8 part series exploring the official "Principles & Purposes" of the Unitarian Universalist Association. In this first session we'll take a look back in time at the founding of the Unitarian Universalist Association & the adoption of the 7 principles. We'll explore the gap between 'wanting to be non-creedal' and 'being non-creedal'.

Join us for a Star Wars, May the Fourth Be With You, inspired look at the topic of imagination, we'll weave in some magic and some reflection on the power of telling our own stories, just for good measure.

Reflections on the first year of The Pulpiteer & ministry in the San Gabriel pulpit.

This episode is inspired by and named after the eighth chapter of What It Takes To Heal by Prentis Hemphill, our congregational read for 2024-25. Join us, won't you?