Can it be, the Divine comes to walk with us on the road of our doubts, our pain, our brokenness?

We know now he gave us this meal to nourish our endurance,

The words of Amanda Gorman, Poet Laureate, from her moving poem during the inauguration of Joseph Biden and Kamala Harris as President and Vice-President of the United States of America.

Human child of human mother, see the Christ has come to birth, demonstrating now in living every person’s human worth.

Dina Datsko de Sánchez wrote this new poem for the re-imagined Homecoming Sunday at First Congregational Church, Long Beach.

    Son. Father. Uncle. Friend. Human being. Child of God. What blindness could keep anyone from seeing the sacred life in this

  Click below for Video of Sermon     Prelude Singing Bell and Call to Worship: L: Our lives feel all disjointed as

An assembly of words that have the power of a hammer and the tenderness of a hug. A little book that tells a big story of a soul’s journey through religion to the Light.

Human child of human mother, see the Christ has come to birth, demonstrating now in living every person's human worth.

At the end of a short story by Heinrich von Kleist there is the line: “I would not have found you to be such a devil if you had not presented yourself as being so angelic.” I realized that this can apply to our conceptions of God. We have been told many bizarre things about God that have led to unrealistic expectations. So I start with the famous quote from Bonhoeffer “God is weak and powerless in the world…” and explore a proper relationship given this fact.

As a follow-up to last week’s post, “Thank You for the Body that Loves Me,” I present another meditation on our earthiness, another in a series of reflections from my earlier books that I hope may lift our spirits in this new year. The series opened with “Peace of Mind” and will continue throughout the season of Epiphany and, who knows, maybe beyond.

For forty days and forty nights you wander in the wilderness and face temptation of body, heart, mind and spirit.

As a peace activist opposed to war, and later as a bagpiper serving with the Vietnam Vets honor guard in Florida and Texas, I played at many military funerals. None is a happy occasion. The saddest moment, for me, was the flag folding ceremony. This reflection is drawn from those rituals. Sam Gould's poem, Don't Stand to be Recognized, comes to mind.

This carol features words by 19th century English poet Christina Rossetti which were set to music by composer Gustav Holst.

"Come Again?" ...we ask meaning, "tell me one more time, I didn't quite get your message." ...Come again? And God, the creator, by whatever name we summon does.

The book begins with the author’s father—and the author himself— dealing with the death of wife and mother. It continues with the author’s powerful encounter with his dying father, then proceeds with poems mourning his father’s death and its aftermath. The second half of the book contains poems which remember and honor significant people and experiences in the author’s life. As a pastoral psychotherapist, the author finds the Bible and spirituality to be major healing resources, along with memories of some key people he writes about who have helped him grow and heal in his life. What happens in writing is a mysterious and awesome thing, and the very process of remembering and writing these poems has helped the author mourn and find some healing.

Our work of peace must begin with the private world of each one of us. To build for man a world without fear, we must be without fear. To build a world of justice we must be just. And how can we fight for liberty if we are not free in our own minds? Dag Hammarskjold

We seek communion in a time of dread Yearn for a table that for all is spread Our broken hearts are blind to creed and caste But burn for love to reconcile at last

A Creator God revealed in a multitude of ways A Divine Presence sensed, it often does amaze God as the reason and the essence of all there is

The picture, speaking of itself, not shaping something else we know; imagines mystery makes it glow beyond all earthly sight can show.

A new collection of poetry and prayer. Vosper once again gives expression to the beauty and complexity of life in ways that can touch and move us on many levels. Identifying our interconnectedness as a core principle of our common, human journey, Vosper plays with imagery and symbol, weaving us into a whole that lifts and ennobles us all.

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?

Good and gracious God, We come before you today lifting up those who, because they are far too frequently seen as different, are far too frequently treated differently.

As the Winter Solstice approaches in the north, we notice the changes: the days of light are shorter, the darkness is longer, the weather is cold, the trees are bare, and snow is often on the ground. John Matthews, who has lectured widely on Celtic and Arthurian traditions, has written this lyrical passage about Winter Solstice: "The Solstice is a time of quietude, of firelight, and dreaming, when seeds germinate in the cold earth, and the cold notes of church bells mingle with the chimes of icicles. Rivers are stilled and the land lies waiting beneath a coverlet of snow. We watch the cold sunlight and the bright stars, maybe go for walks in the quiet land. . . . All around us the season seems to reach a standstill — a point of repose."

Christmas Poetry: Churches are welcome to use these poems with attribution.

1. The fragrance of Spring lies not in judgement's intervention but in love's nurturing of the interior goodness. 2. Spring is not so much a moment as a movement, a manifestation of the sometimes hidden but always present life-force of God.

The flowering of summer is only eclipsed by the flowering of the human spirit. Flowering has no permanency - only the process remains. Indeed the flowering only exists for the continuation of the process.

Give us, O God, leaders whose hearts are large enough to match the breadth of our own souls and give us souls strong enough to follow leaders of vision and wisdom.

A bloodied child foreshadowed by a cross, both share their taste of evil and of loss, and when will people ever live and learn that hurt and harm is all that war can earn?

A Roman-decreed cross was the fate which Jesus met Because of loving humanity, life-giving blood was let