These three words sum up progressive Christian theology. They represent a turning point in the evolution of human understanding of Ultimate Reality.  The Bible starts with Superman-In-The-Sky and ends with agape – unconditional love - as the identity of the Divine.

“At the center of the Christmas story is hope…hope which comes to us in the form of a vulnerable, poor baby. A child, not a king, changes the world. God appears to us as a marginalized, Afro-Semitic, Jewish child from Nazareth in Palestine. A child who grows up to teach us to welcome the stranger. How would our world be different if we loved our neighbors as ourselves?” asks the Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis, senior minister of Middle Collegiate Church.

  Darkness envelops our world and our lives. Shadows enshroud our spirits. We come to pay homage to one who tried to bring

Reinhold Niebuhr's brother, H. Richard, argued for faithfulness to the example of Jesus's nonviolence, while Reinhold believed this was naive and unrealistic in an imperfect world. H. Richard was the purist to the Christian faith, believing that following the Golden Rule, no matter the consequences, is what Jesus and God called us to do -- the success of the mission being in God's hands rather than our own. Reinhold, however, looked at the more practical side of things, substituting his or the world's idea of what was possible and changing his ethics accordingly. H. Richard thus trusted more in the providential moral arc of history as M.L. King, Jr. , would call it rather than a realist's version of what humans believe is attainable given their corrupt nature. In essence, H. Richard focused on the power of God's grace to transform our spirits and the world for the better, while Reinhold accepted a more cynical view of our ability to be radically changed as a specie.

One: A Blessing on you who are poor Many Yours is the household of God One A blessing on you who mourn Many: you shall be comforted

The pain of our Good Fridays still lingers among us. We still dwell inside the long waiting of our Holy Saturdays. Old wounds hold us in calloused hearts. Ancient histories mold our souls in fear. New worries drag us toward the abyss of dread.

One: May God the World Maker bless you; Many: Let us delight in sunlight and starlight and surprises of the turning earth.

Leader: Creator God to you we pray; - All: Help us hear your children's cry. Leader: Most joyful God to you we pray; ‑ All: Help us share your children's joy.

Drawn by God’s presence. . . . . .we gather Inspired by God’s spirit. . . . . .we worship

Hungry for meaning? Welcome home. Thirsty for purpose? Welcome home.

When Jesus prayed, he found a sense of sacred oneness, when Buddha meditated, he became awake to deeper levels of awareness. No one truly knows the effectiveness of prayer, but one thing is for sure- when we take the time to be still, to slow down, to go inward, we almost always discover something about ourselves and the potential awareness that we are not alone.

We are here to praise and enjoy God with body and soul, mind and heart, with song and word, with hands and feet. We are here to give because of the abundance God has given us, to share with each other, and to receive, because God has created us to depend on each other. We are here to celebrate the differences that otherwise might divide us: differences of age, of body, of culture, of opinion, of ability, of religious conviction. We are here to put things in perspective: to celebrate what matters, to laugh about things we take too seriously, to cry about things that truly touch our hearts. So may it be this morning: Amen!

In this New Year, let us lift our vision of what we can do and what we can achieve:

We crouch with Mary on the straw of our messy lives letting go of everything but this moment.

"you who delight me" is in two parts: poems of love—secular and spirited writing about people, places and events; and words of spirit and faith—inclusive language, contemporary liturgies for individual contemplation and progressive faith communities.

Born to a poor uneducated carpenter and his partner All: Jesus was one with oppressed humankind

Come, let us walk the road that Mary walked the challenging road from Nazareth to Bethlehem not knowing what the future holds.

We have a vision of the world not yet realised All: Where they will beat their swords into ploughshares

Leader: In this Advent season, we honor a time in history when people anticipated the birth of a child. People: The child grew to be a man who gave hope to his people.

I asked for strength and God gave me difficulties to make me strong.

We recognise that life is a gift and a joy to be lived in all its richness All: We give thanks with all our hearts