All the Assembly Kept Silence

Download a PDF of this sermon Amos 7:7-15 • Acts 15:6-12 In 2008, a fragment of a sermon by Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ got clipped into the news cycle for some days. To the shock and awe of millions, that preacher, who was pastor...

The Constant Instant

What lies at the bottom of this constant craving in our nature for more satisfaction? Nothing
lies at the bottom of constant craving. That’s the problem. That’s the marvel. Put into yourself what you will, of whatever nature and whatever number, these cannot fill you, for there is nothing at the bottom of you. You are an openness.

It’s About Time

Through forty years, I have meditated on Isak Dinesen’s three forms of true happiness. Much more than sports analogies await here, as you already see. Whenever we face a challenge—some kind of opponent—our imagination instantly delivers an assessment of our own resources. Can I meet it? Often, we fear not.

Resistance and Resilience

In the days before the inauguration, I viewed a four-hour documentary on PBS. Called “The Divided States of America,” it examined how Americans grew far apart during the presidency of Barack Obama. Grief gripped me as I watched. Frame after frame revealed the unrestrained hatred of countless Americans for our former president. . . What was its source?