Do you like parades? There’s something about the atmosphere that surrounds a parade! Usually parades are the most obvious things in the world. Streets are closed off. Bands play lively music. People in colorful costumes march down the Main Street, and there are crowds on both sides of the street cheering and waving.   more...

As I read the commandments I am reminded of the 150th Psalm. The Psalmist says, “Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!” The Orthodox Jew says, Let all that I do praise the Lord! Let our prayers praise the Lord! Let our food praise the Lord! Let our clothing praise the Lord! Let our hospitality praise the Lord! Let our manners praise the Lord! Let our elevators praise the Lord! Let all that we do praise the Lord!   more...

At one time or another, we have all had one of those days when we needed to be in two places at one time! It just happened to me yesterday! I had a wedding on my calendar at 3:00 p.m., and 3:00 p.m. was the same time of Bruce Keep’s memorial service at the Congregational Church in West Tisbury. The wedding had been on my calendar for a year, so I had to honor that as my first priority!   more...

"Give it to me in a nutshell" — an old saying — it means, “Tell me what I need to know, but keep it short. Don't bother me with unnecessary detail. Don't bore me with a long, technical explanation. Just get to the bottom line.” We like things short and sweet. Network television news has time only to hit the high spots and to show us a few pictures, but it gives us the big picture in a few minutes.   more...

All Saints is about life and living, and there is a simple theme and it is this: "Here and there". Now listen closely to what I’m going to say about "here and there". Here is not there and there is not here and you can’t get there without being here. It like that old saying up in Maine: “Ya can’t get there from here!” Or maybe not. Did you ever notice in life that here is here and there is there, here is not there, and there is not here and you can’t get there without being here?   more...

The Boy Scout motto is "Be prepared." "Be prepared for what?" someone once asked Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting, "Why, for any old thing." he answered. There is a dream that I’ve had numerous times since my ordination. Every time the details are slightly different than they were in previous versions (I’m in a different place, there are different people around), but it is always a very vivid dream and I always wake up with a feeling of anxiety after I have it.   more...

It is Stewardship Sunday, and I want to share some thoughts with you about the word “stewardship.” So tell me if this scenario sounds familiar to you. First off the word “stewardship” is explained as us being faithful managers of all the resources with which God has entrusted us. And then, traditionally, these words are further explained in terms of “time, talent, and treasure.” And then those words are further explained in terms of giving more money to the church and its mission. Am I correct so far? Over the years I have come to understand this as learning about stewardship from the outside in. Today, I’m hoping to change that so we might see stewardship from inside out. I’d like to share with you a brief theology of offering. It arises out of a simple premise: Why we give is every bit as important as what we give.   more...

William Willimon, a Methodist Bishop and former Dean of the Chapel at Duke University, tells this story: One Sunday after church we stopped at a restaurant. It was crowded and our server looked tired and weary. After the meal and things were thinning out, I asked her: “You look tired – are you okay?” She told me she had been up most of the night with her little boy who was sick but that she was okay. I said: “It must be hard after being up all night, having to stand on your feet and work so hard.” She just nodded. “What’s the hardest day of the week to work?” She didn’t know I was a Reverend. She said “The hardest day of the week is Sunday. I dread all the people who come here after church. They make so many demands and some of them are so hateful. And they never tip hardly anything.   more...

I am the youngest of four children, and the celebration of Christmas always took place at our home. I have nieces and nephews who are almost my age, so my older siblings would pack up their families and come to our house on Christmas morning and it would be a day long festivity. Some years ago I was lamenting the loss of those days to my sister, Ono Lee, and she said, "You know, in those days preparing was the biggest part of Christmas. We had some great Christmas’ when we all gathered at home.”   more...

Do you consider yourself to be a positive or negative person? I think most of us would respond that we want to be positive. If there is anything that a Christian ought to be, it is positive. There are many things that we assert, and we are positive about them.   more...

Because we have just had our Children’s program, I haven’t planned for a regular sermon. What follows is some random and humorous stuff on Christmas. My dear friend Herb Foster, who is part of the Hebrew Center here on the Vineyard, and I have an ongoing battle about who can tell the best jokes: his always have a Jewish leaning to them and mine, well of course, I lean toward the Christian.   more...

I love all of the readings from Christmas, but one of my favorites is one we didn’t read tonight – it comes from the ninth chapter of Isaiah: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” Every time I hear this prophecy from Isaiah, I think back to 1971.   more...

Frequently at Christmas we get so caught up with love and sentiment that we forget that the coming of the Christ child caused deep tremors in the social landscape. He was not just a cute little baby, but the one “who put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of love degree.” For centuries people have confessed that once they meet the incarnated Son of God, there life is never the same. This is a true story from the middle of World War I in 1914.   more...

Maybe you would give 2011 an 9 out of 10 – in other words, it was a really good year. It was a good year because you had success in your business, a good year with investments, good family relationships, new friendships! Was 2011 a year that included a lot of exciting things, new challenges, tasks completed, a great holiday?   more...

My message this morning has little, if anything, to do with baptism! And yet again, maybe it has everything to do with it. We are fortunate, you and I, to live on a small island away from the hustle and bustle of the city. This time of year we can quietly roam through the streets of our towns without maddening crowds which we encounter in the summer. We have time, so to speak, to stop and smell the flowers. But do we really?   more...

One of the funniest movies to come out in a long time was the 2003 offering of Bruce Almighty, with Jim Carry in the title role. Bruce is a guy whose life is really on the decline. Nothing goes right for him and of course, he blames God for everything wrong in his life! Finally God, played by Morgan Freeman, tires of listening to Bruce whine and says in effect, “If you think you can do a better job of running the creation, here’s your chance, you are now God! I’m going on a vacation!”   more...

I read this story not long ago from a pastor. I’ve had similar experience, but this is the best I’ve heard. The Pastor says: I received a phone call first thing one morning. The person on the line said with obvious excitement, "I need to see you. Come over this morning. I need to have breakfast and have my hair done. So how does eleven o’clock sound?"   more...