And to those who say God’s work can only be done by following certain rules, the rabbi says, What if the compassion you show to your pets, even the care you give to your cars, were given also to your sisters and brothers on earth?
The Christmas poem, “Immanuel: God Within and Among Us” was written for the Centennial Christmas Cantata to celebrate the centennial of First Congregational Church of Long Beach's historic building. Below is a the video of the performance.
Coming home to community, we come home to our better selves.Coming together as community, we can live as our better selves.
Together we remember, we commemorate, the lives that were taken, the souls that were taken. They did not evaporate into air. They are with us still in the choice we make to remember, to hold up with love and honor those who died in two great glass towers, who represented the world and its connections, those who died at the Pentagon, those who died on Flight 93 in sacrifice that others might live.
God grieves with us our every loss— the murder of a dear friend, the death of a beloved parent, a blossoming young life cut short.
A gun took me from you, but not only a gun. Behind the gun burned hatred born of fear. Bullets took them from us, but not only bullets. Behind the bullets the smallness of fear-hate aspired to grandiosity.