For Martin Luther King Day (Sunday, January 13, 2013)

For Martin Luther King Day 2013

Gwendolyn Brooks once wrote:

A man went forth with gifts.

He was a prose poem.

He was a tragic grace.

He was warm music.

He tried to heal the vivid volcanoes.

His ashes are

                 rending the wind.

Let us remember, my friends, that we have tender saplings yet to plant. Saplings of hope. Saplings of caring. Saplings of love.
And we must plant these saplings at once. For hope can be the fastest growing plant of all. Love can overtake a wilderness, and make it bloom and flower again.

But these trees of life will not grow at all unless we plant them.
And his memory will not be redeemed unless we live his Dream, every day of our lives.

So may it be. Amen. 

The Heart of Christmas is Love (Sunday, December 16, 2012)

The Heart of Christmas is Love

At the heart of this sacred season
is love,
pure and simple;
and the essence of this season
is the sacred life that abides in love,
whether long ago in Bethlehem,
or where we are,
right here, right now.

This is the whole reason
for the splendor and the miracle;
it is the whole reason
for our being here, in this church,
on this Earth, together.

We are here to love:
not just when it warms our hearts;
but even (perhaps especially)
when the fires of love seem to have gone out,                                                                                                         or when not loving would warm our hearts
quite sufficiently with that roaring fire of anger and rage.

But it is only through love
that the world is made new again,
and the purpose of Creation
brought to its completion.
Hatred and anger do not build
the holy stable where the blessed one is born:
only love does.

Even when the command to love
leaves us cold, the miracle of Christmas reminds us
we must love even in our deepest winters
if the flowers of new life are ever to blossom
in our hearts, and in our lives, and in our world.

jbs
1/24/05     12/19/05     12/16/12

The Choicest Blessings (Sunday, November 11, 2012)

The Choicest Blessings

So often, instead of striding across the face of earth
with confidence and contentment,
we instead stumble through the hours of our lives
with that vague feeling of dissatisfaction;
a craving in our souls; hungering perhaps
for the empty calories
that pride, possessions, and position bring.

While all along, we have been graced
by the choicest blessings these days of living bring:
gifts of life so simple,
yet so profound and true.
There have already been given unto us
everything that will abide when our lives are finally reckoned
in God’s great book of days;
all that survives when we are gone,
or when even those we love are taken from us.

The remnant of our love that remains
tallies the true worth of our lives.
If this cup of life is bitter sometimes,
so, truly, its sweetness lasts forever.
To drink from this cup of life to the full
is the deepest and truest calling
for all of us, children of the earth, to answer.

 

jbs
4/17/02       4/15/07       11/11/12

Come to the Feast! (Sunday, October 21, 2012)

“Come to the feast!”

The real work of heaven is joy,
and our work here on Earth is to rescue
the children of God—and that means all of us—
from those sullen saints who
would have us mired forever
in despondency and fear.

So, let us open the doors wide
to these lives we lead; open them
and welcome all souls
to this, our banquet of love and joy!

You are invited as a guest
to my House of Love;
all you need to bring is
a ready smile, a laugh,
and a joyful heart;
bring along a hearty appetite, as well,
that yearns to taste the holy.

Come and feast at the banquet
life have set; provisions loaned to us
from the hand of the Eternal One,
who meets our needs so lavishly, and leaves us asking
and asks but a few crumbs of service in return.

So let us share this feast of joy!
Open your hearts and let the music burst through:
the music of heaven, forever guiding your steps
in this holy dance of life.

 

jbs
5/13/04        10/10/04        1/27/08        10/28/12

"The Smile of God" (Sunday, October 14, 2012)

The Smile of God

 The simplest smile upon a human face
is intimation enough of God;
all holiness radiates from there;

it is the holy foundation of our joy.
There would be no smile
were it not for the spirit that lay behind it;
there would be no reason for the joy that bursts forth
from the very heart of life.

Were there not really something deeper
that smile would not draw us close,
and set these wellsprings of love
flowing once again.
This is our purpose here:
to find the worth and goodness
of everything that dwells here with us:
to liberate all to the glory of God
and the service of the world.

This is our choice:
to dance, in joy, as part of all eternity,
or to cling rigidly, trying to control
the moment that is already dead and gone;
to dwell in the presence of the Eternal, 
or to spend our lives moving just a bit closer to death
with each passing day.

 

jbs
1/3/05          2/26/06          3/29/09         10/14/12

"Of Body and Soul" (Sunday, September 23, 2012)

 

Of Body and Soul

Doing all those big and very important things that are ours to do,
means doing well those little, closer things
which open our hearts and hands and minds
and set these love-catching soul in motion.

That means paying attention to these bodies of ours,
for whatever we think of them, they are, after all, the vessels of the soul.
We need to mind them, and honor them,
even when we might rather disengage and run,
and see ourselves jetting through the cosmos
as pure air and light and spirit,
which is, of course, something that we're not.

So Mary now meets Martha
and soul meets body and bliss befriends duty.
And in the holy union of the two

                 that who we shall be can yet be born                                                        

and through these selves of ours, both earthy and ethereal,
Holy Love can flow in all its forms,
a living spirit upon this living Earth.

jbs
11/28/98      10/16/05     9/23/12

"In Praise of Humility" (Sunday, September 16, 2012)

In Praise of Humility

Sometimes, our souls
are like watering cans full of holes:
holes where the humanness, the humility, and the humor
shine through.
But make no mistake about it:
there shines through as well
the most holy light, the very face of God.

When our (so-called) “lower traits”
are used for God, to glorify our Creator,
they, too, become holy.
God takes the most lowly among us
and raises us to a kingly priesthood;
God takes our limitations
and sanctifies them to divine service.

In this transcendence (this transformation),
the true miracle of life abides:
small daily miracles that warm our hearts,
and remind us of what a joy life can be;
great soul-stretching (sometimes heart-wrenching) miracles
that open wide the gates of our souls
to the heaven that dwells within (and beyond).

So, don’t be ashamed of your humbleness,
for it is your bridge to the holy.
Don’t be afraid of your humanness,
for in that image you reflect, every day of your life,
the love of God made flesh, and bone, and body.

jbs
7/30/04          10/3/04          9/16/12