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Years ago, while serving my first church, I took part in two “missionary” trips to the Dominican Republic. A local church there had embarked upon a highly ambitious plan to build a hospital for Haitian immigrants working as virtual slaves in the surrounding sugar cane fields. At that time at least, Dominican society discriminated against these workers (many of whom had been brought to the DR against their will) and wouldn’t treat them in their hospitals.

A week or two before the second trip a meeting was arranged for those scheduled to make the trip. It was led by a group of pastors who, being pastors, separated us into small groups to “share” our hopes and expectations for the trip.

At one point we were asked to discuss what we hoped to accomplish. The answers amazed me, though probably shouldn’t have. The sentiments expressed struck me as utterly grandiose, as if this small American church group alone was going to save the world.

Continue reading “Cosmic Justice and Other Heresies”

Some years ago I heard a radio interview with one of my favorite Christian writers, the late Fred Buechner. The occasion was the release of his newest book, a collection of sermons.

At the time he’d long since retired. Thus, at one point, the interviewer asked him where he’d been attending church. His answer stunned me. In fact, I thought it sacrilegious. It diminished him in my eyes. He said he didn’t go to church.

When asked why, he explained, in effect, that none of the churches he’d attended seemed to get it. None struck him as particularly relevant or engaging. It was mostly meaningless blather (my words, not his).

Continue reading “Frozen in Amber”

A Sermon Preached at the First Congregational Church in Wellfleet, MA on September 17, 2023

Not many know this, but Linda and I attended the royal wedding. I even officiated, actually. Oh, I’m not talking about the one in London a few years back with Meghan and Harry, No, this was my niece’s wedding a few weeks ago in California.

It was quite the affair, a four-day extravaganza involving multiple hotel gatherings on consecutive nights as well as, naturally enough, the coup de grâce: the glorious pageant – I mean, the actual wedding ceremony itself.

The outdoor venue, high above the Pacific, offered a bird’s eye view of the Los Angeles coastline, facing north toward Malibu and the Hollywood Hills in the distance. Naturally, everyone was dressed to the nines. Except for me. I stuck out like a skunk at a picnic, wearing my black robe amidst women with slinky, low-cut dresses and men with aviator sunglasses and penny loafers without socks. What can I say? It was very L.A.

Continue reading “A Sermon: “White Noise: Not as Easy as It Sounds””

Peter’s an interesting guy. At one time he was a member of Bermuda’s America’s Cup sailing team. He also was a friend of Teddy Tucker, the legendary treasure hunter who discovered over 100 shipwrecks in the waters surrounding that beautiful isle, including his most famous find, the “Tucker Cross,” an emerald studded 22-karat gold religious artifact recovered from the San Pedro, a Spanish galleon lost on Bermuda’s reefs in 1594.

Peter is also our favorite taxi driver. Whenever we visit the island (a place that holds special meaning to me given that my parents met there in 1946 and also because Linda and I honeymooned there), we make every effort to arrange his services.

Peter is a veritable encyclopedia when it comes to Bermuda. And a real raconteur. He knows every inch of the island and is highly conversant in politics, the economy, and local scuttlebutt. He’s also a lot of fun. Plus, he takes us where we want to go!

Continue reading “Gullible?”

Last Sunday I was taken out of mothballs, having been asked to preach at a nearby church. The theme of the day’s lectionary texts centered around the contrast between seeing and blindness, how spiritual seeing, in other words, differs from the way the “world” generally sees itself.

The gospel reading from John featured Jesus healing a man blind from birth. The upshot is that the religious leaders, the Pharisees, refuse to believe what is right before their eyes – a man born blind is now able to see.

Near the end of the reading, Jesus says, “I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.”

Continue reading “Get Off My Lawn!”

I’m old enough to remember seeking cover under my desk in elementary school. Apparently, it never occurred to the administrators at the New Lebanon School that in the event of a nuclear detonation our flimsy writing tables just might not fully protect us. But under the desks we went.

It is perhaps hard for those of us living today to imagine, or remember, the fear and anxiety that gripped our world in the 50s and 60s relative to “the bomb.” It was a topic on everyone’s lips.

With the advent of the “space age” and its technological advancements, particularly with respect to weapons delivery systems, the possibility of a “nuclear holocaust” had become real, one with the potential to wipe out tens of millions of people in a matter of moments. Worse still, we appeared to be on a collision course with our mortal enemy, a nuclearized Soviet Union.

Continue reading “Where Have All the Peacemakers Gone?”

The following is a talk I delivered on November 6, 2022 in celebration of the Harwich church’s 275th Anniversary

I am honored, though a bit surprised, to be standing here this morning. Perhaps I should explain. It all started the day my father insulted me. I was maybe 10 years old at the time.

How did he achieve this? He told me I had the perfect personality to be a pastor. It was the last thing I wanted to do. Which is to say I was your typical suburban kid (Greenwich, CT) with fairly typical aspirations, none of which even remotely included ministry.

Worse still, I knew my father was a bit of an authority on the subject. Though not himself a pastor, he was the product of five generations of them on his father’s side. Several of his uncles and great-uncles were pastors also, not to mention his mother’s father being a pastor as well!

Ministry was, in a sense, the family business. Ultimately, it fell to me to get the family back on track. It was a dirty job but, as I often say, somebody had to do it!

Continue reading “Past Pastors’ Talk”

As with most prophets, Jeremiah was not especially popular among his contemporaries. Of course, after his warnings proved true, and with the safe passage of time, we effortlessly assume we’d have agreed with him. But we probably wouldn’t have.

It’s important to note, parenthetically, that the one and only test of a true prophet in ancient Israel was whether his or her prophecies proved accurate. There was no such thing as a genuine prophet whose predictions turned out to be false.

All things considered, we don’t much like prophets. That’s because they say things we don’t want to hear. They are the proverbial skunk at the picnic. And, boy, are they ever negative! Why not lighten up a bit, for God’s sake? Why get all bent out of shape?

The reason is that they’re after the truth. Thus, they reject the convenient lies and comforting half-truths we prefer. They refuse to play to our pet biases, assuring us everything’s just hunky-dory. And they’re not afraid to go against the crowd and its unquenchable thirst for conventional wisdom and soothing clichés.

Prophets seek neither plaudits nor personal affirmation. Just truth.

Continue reading “The Mirage of Immortality”

I have it on good authority that many church-going Christians don’t care for the liturgical season of Lent, which began this year on March 2.

The reason? I think it has to do with Lent’s emphasis on repentance. Yet what is repentance? Isn’t it bad? And isn’t it just a holdover from the church’s unenlightened past?

Well, no, it isn’t. A local pastor years ago, writing in his church’s newsletter, likened Lent’s call for repentance to periodically changing the oil in your car, to remove all the gunk that prevents it from operating at full efficiency. It’s the same for us. To repent serves as a prerequisite to experiencing life at its fullest, and in a godlier way.

Repentance, therefore, is aspirational. It involves giving up something that diminishes life in order to embrace something that enhances it. And don’t we all want that?

Continue reading “Losing Our Souls”

Manicheansim is an ancient Persian religion notable for its belief in strict dualism. The world is divided between the good – the spiritual world of light – and the material world of darkness. Thus, there are only two teams, if you will. One good, the other bad.

O, to be on the side of the good! O, to be on the right team!

When war breaks out, the lines are drawn. Not to sound too much like a Putin puppet, but aren’t there at least two sides to every conflict? After all, wars don’t happen in a vacuum. More to the point, is it in any way possible, amidst the fog of war, to engage in sober analysis? To ask questions? To have doubts? Or does entertaining any of these necessarily suggest callous disregard for the victims of war?

Apparently, the only legitimate stance these days is: Stop thinking and go along with the crowd! Get on the bandwagon! Beat the drums of war! Get ‘em! Get ‘em! Get ‘em!

Continue reading “Manicheanism”